


Only the Forgotten

by kayura_sanada



Category: Code Geass
Genre: A Geass Is Like A Wish, Destined love, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-R2, Reunions, The World of C
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-03-21 05:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 54,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13733691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kayura_sanada/pseuds/kayura_sanada
Summary: It seemed there was still an Immortal after Lelouch's Geass purge. The woman may just be the one threat that reveals everything, destroying the peace Lelouch gave his mortality for and the friend for whom he was willing to risk everything else.Chapters 1-16 originally posted on ffnet from 08/21/2011 to 05/17/15. Returned to due to very kind reviews over the years. Updated as posted.





	1. A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Deep and special thanks to All The Aspects, Molly in pain, and machnae; without the three of you, this story would have remained unfinished forever.
> 
> Though I cannot promise fast or even steady progress, I do promise to battle once more with this fic, to date the hardest thing I have ever attempted to write. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.

* * *

 

" _Only the forgotten are truly dead."_

__-Tess Gerritsen_ _

* * *

He looked out from beneath the safety of his cowl as the bullet train bumped along the tracks. He scanned the people around him; as usual, Japan’s transportation systems were crowded. None of the many passengers seemed yet to notice, but he couldn't trust luck. Moving out in the open was dangerous and foolhardy, and with what he'd done, it would be even more difficult to follow up the rumors C.C. had heard. He frowned. Still, it had been necessary.

C.C. came back then, sitting next to him and fluffing her yellow skirt. He smirked. The woman hated skirts. "No one," she told him, keeping her eyes toward the front, and he nodded. For now, they were safe. They would have to take a different train, which would mean a long wait. Still. Better that than someone able to tail them. C.C. tried to straighten her hair; it wasn’t faring well in the humidity produced from the shared body heat around them. "You aren't a martyr anymore, you know,” she said, using her hands to hide her mouth. “You don't need to be doing this."

"No. I must always do this."

She just sighed.

Someone got up from behind them, and both he and C.C. tensed. But the person moved to the back, and he heard the door to the bathroom open and close. C.C. sighed. "I'll check it out."

He nodded.

She was graceful as she slid right back out, her long hair now flowing in green rivers. He watched as she spoke to someone behind them. It sounded like an old lady asking if C.C. was all right. She was laughed off. "Oh, I'm just restless." The old lady laughed, too, and C.C. was on her way. He kept his head down. This was dangerous.

Again he pulled out the newspaper clipping. It was old and torn from the past year's abuse, but the picture was more in his mind now, and he didn't need to see it clearly to know what it was: Zero, standing radiant over the tyrannic king's corpse. 'The hero of Justice returns!' the caption read, and under it, 'Lelouch vi Britannia dethroned a mere month after he takes command of Fleija.' Lelouch didn't bother reading anything else; he knew every word by heart. Instead he looked at Zero, the stance he had memorized, the chin lifted high. He frowned again.

"He's out," C.C. said, sliding into her seat once more. He put the picture away, his frown deepening. He’d been right to be cautious, then. They were already out of time. C.C. stretched her hands over her head. "This stop or the next?"

"The next," he said. "They'd expect this one."

She hummed. "Do you think they'll find out before we get off?"

He looked out the window. They were running through farmlands, passing row after row of greens and yellows. Far beyond, he could see the jut of trees. He tilted his gaze to the sky. It was bright, the sun strong enough to prove the summer's dawn. He rolled his shoulders. It was similar to that day, almost to a painful degree. He looked away from the window, but C.C. had caught him looking. "It's disconcerting, isn't it?"

He said nothing, just looked back. Yes, his body had been taken to a deserted farm. The building he'd been dropped near had been burned at some point; he knew it had probably been caused in some way by him. He'd been left for the birds; it was on Zero's order, the only kindness Suzaku could give him. They'd wanted his body in pieces, on a stake or hanging. Suzaku hadn't known, of course, that he yet lived, and he'd simply lain motionless until he'd been dropped. In that scorched field where soybeans had once grown, he'd found his goals reached and his life…

A loud ding informed them that the train was about to stop. A number of people around them started grabbing their things. The movement made his shoulders itch; he'd chosen to keep his hair the same in a fit of narcissism, and it made it even more impossible for him to hide if he was seen. Yes, they'd taken quite a chance, starting this journey.

No, that wasn't true. __He__ was the one taking such a chance. He could only hope it paid off.

* * *

"Is this report accurate?"

"Yes, sir, Zero. As far as we can tell."

He read over it again with a frown, though of course the general couldn't see it. The report was similar to two others, both sitting in files gathering dust. The sunlight from outside glittered through the windows onto his back, heating his black cloak to fiery levels. What had Lelouch been thinking, making his outfit like this? "It says the man you found left cargo on a train. You've stopped it, I presume."

"Yes, sir, though it had made two stops before we made the connection." Suzaku let his arm fall to his side, sliding his form back inside the cloak. He'd once thought Lelouch's adamance about theatrics had been absurd; he'd thought people would never fall for such shows. But here he was, a year in, and this general whom he had spoken to countless times was shifting from one foot to the other as he waited. Perhaps it was the mask. It had always slightly intimidated Suzaku, seeing it. Or maybe it was the symbol he knew himself to be. The symbol of peace and justice, love and vengeance in equal measures. Or maybe the man could just feel his frustration.

"And have you picked up these people?"

"Yes, sir. As many as we could, though we’re still searching for those who got off on the first stop. The second stop, we’ve rounded up the names of all but a few. A young man who’d looked homeless. An older gentleman with a bamboo cane. And an older lady remembered seeing a young girl with odd-colored hair. The staff has no recollection of how she boarded. She got off on the second stop."

Suzaku's eyes narrowed. Odd hair? "What color?"

"Greenish."

It __was__ her. It had been a year since he'd heard of that C.C. girl, and he had to admit that he'd been pleased to be able to simply ignore her existence. Maybe he couldn't afford to anymore. But why now? Why was she sighted now? Though, if he remembered correctly, she could make herself invisible. Why didn't she? Too busy? Too weak? Too crowded?

"Sir?"

Suzaku handed the report back to the general. "Take this and find the green-haired woman, but don't confront her. Once you've found her, contact me."

“Yes, sir!" The man saluted and rushed off to do as told. The door closed behind him.

Suzaku was left alone in the room again. He looked around, hardly letting himself slouch, knowing men could pop in at any moment. The room was austere, if plush, with a red sofa on the opposite side and an endtable with a bright, cheery lamp beside it. He stood by the desk, a deep mahogany that may or may not have been antique, which sat on the wall opposite the couch. There was carpet, soft and white, though Suzaku had never felt it through Lelouch's infernal gloves. It was the sunlight that he loved, and he wished he could let his face soak in it. He hadn't been able to for a year. His permanent tan was slowly fading.

"Zero?"

He turned as the door clicked open. Nunnally sat in her wheelchair with a grin. No one stood beside her. He allowed himself to relax, just a bit. "Nunnally."

With the flick of the joystick, her wheelchair moved toward him. Those eyes of hers still ate up the sight of him; he, in turn, still found himself baffled by those almost-blue irises. Somehow he'd always thought she'd have purple eyes. Like her brother.

He scowled at the thought.

"How are you? I heard General Miyamoto was here."

"He was." Suzaku leaned against the possibly-antique desk and rolled his shoulders. "Do you remember the Oomi and Takagawa cases?"

She frowned a bit as she thought. "You mean the smuggler and the rapist, right?" It still disturbed him to see her speak of such things with such alacrity. He remembered her as Lelouch's little sister, always kept innocent by Lelouch. He didn't know if it was her time with Schneizel that had changed her or the murder of her brother. Still, she always had a smile for him, and she'd told him she knew about their conspiracy, though Suzaku was sure Lelouch hadn't told her. "Yes, I remember them. Is there a new lead?"

"No. A new victim." She didn't seem surprised. "Kawa Hiromu. Apparently he was creating and shipping armaments to those with the coin to get them."

This made those bright eyes slide half-closed. She took a deep breath. "Even after all he did…"

Suzaku looked away. His entire body tensed. "Miyamoto did say something else. Apparently a young woman with green hair was on the train at the time the body was dumped."

Nunnally leaned forward in her chair. "Wait… you mean–"

"Yeah. It may be her."

They were silent then, each contemplating it all. "Maybe she's continuing brother's beliefs?"

Suzaku ground his teeth. "That's even more reason to stop her." Outside his window, he could see a large spread of a garden, chrysanthemums and azaleas playing around sakura trees and boxwood plants. He remembered when the décor had been solidly less Eastern, and how Nunnally had asked it changed without him saying a word about how disturbed the sight had made him. The layout still had a slightly Eastern feel, but at least now he didn't feel like he was surrounded on all sides.

"I don't understand," she said finally. "Why would she show herself now? And why would she write that 'Shinjitsu' thing?"

He turned once more from the windows and looked at her. Those eyebrows of hers were scrunched. "She's killed three people, Nunnally."

"It just doesn't seem to be something she'd do." Nunnally rolled forward. "Besides, I don't know how much Japanese she knows. Maybe she knows something about who killed those men, though."

He took a deep breath. If he thought about it, if he let himself calm down enough, he could see what Nunnally meant. He couldn't see that woman doing anything like this on her own initiative. But maybe it was Lelouch who'd ordered it. Just as he'd been given orders to be Zero, maybe she'd been given orders to play some sort of vigilante. "We need to find her."

A knock came at the door then, and both turned. The general came in again, his hand raised to wipe back his thinning hair. "Zero. The meeting with the Chinese Federation will start soon."

"Fine. By the time I return, I want that woman found." Suzaku threw out a hand with the order, causing the cape to fly out around him. The general rushed to do as told. Suzaku pulled his hand back and curled back under the cape with a sigh.

Nunnally giggled. "You're getting good at that."

She genuinely seemed to enjoy it, so he let it go. It was at least true that he was used to the uniform now. Before it had itched and cramped despite C.C.'s modifications, and the gloves had made him uneasy, not being able to touch anything. But the most disconcerting was the cape. The gloves and such he could get used to, so long as he'd thought it was like being in Lancelot, but the cape! It was heavy and thick and cumbersome. And on hot days like this, going outside in the sun was torture. Rain was even worse.

"In any case," he said finally, "we need to find out what's happening. The peace we have is still tenuous."

Nunnally nodded. "I won't let brother's work be undone."

Suzaku's lips thinned. He didn't have such faith in Lelouch, but he wouldn't let anyone compromise the peace brought by Euphemia's death. "Let's go. They'll be waiting."

Nunnally smiled as he took a hold of her wheelchair and spun her out of the room. "Aren't they always?"

* * *

The sandwich from the gas station wasn't quite what he would call edible, but it was better than some things he'd found himself eating in the past year. The streets were filled with cars at this point in the day, everyone returning to their homes. Someone placed their gas nozzle back and got into their car. He watched from under his hood. He could take the hood off, since he was now hiding himself with the technique C.C. had taught him, but still he hid. It was habit now.

He felt a need to move, but he couldn't do anything. Not yet. Rushing would be futile, and it wasn't as if he hadn't safeguarded against this danger, anyway. He needed to remain calm. It wasn't any different than when he'd tried to get Nunnally back.

Of course, that had failed spectacularly.

He saw C.C. then, waiting for the light to turn red before jaywalking her way past the cars. A sort of shimmering around her told him she was hidden from normal eyes, as well. She gave him a little salute as she walked up. With two more bites, the sandwich was gone. He stood. "Anything?"

She nodded. "It happened again. 'Shinjitsu,' written over your handiwork."

He frowned. His fingers clenched. "And you're certain."

"It happened once before, just as I told you."

Someone exited the gas station. He watched them get to their car and leave. He scanned the road as the light turned green, then moved to gaze at the skyscrapers. His gaze caught on a picture of Zero. It was some broadcast; he couldn't hear much over the cars, but it seemed like Zero was planning to attend a meeting today. That meant people. Press. "Last time, you said she killed several leaders of the witch hunts."

"That's right. I saw her once, as I was recovering from my burns. She wrote 'Truth' beside their bodies before she left."

"Truth." He repeated the word as if testing it out. According to C.C., this white-haired woman was a stickler for it. "And she's one of us."

"That's right." She stretched her hands over her head, arched her back. "She's far older than me, as well."

Lelouch looked up at the broadcast again, but the picture of Zero was gone, replaced by Milly. A car passed, its frame pounding the hard bass beat of a metal song. "She erases the lies, then."

"Kills them dead. Though I have to admit that I hadn't minded the idea back then." C.C. looked over to the newscast, too. "Are you sure about this? You could get caught."

Yes, he knew the risks. "I won't let her erase everything I've done."

C.C. gave him a look, the same look she'd given him when he'd said he was coming out of hiding for this. A look that said she saw beyond his words. He ignored it. Finally she sighed. "Well, I won't stop you. This past year has been dull, anyway."

The news changed to a car crash on a highway somewhere, and he dropped his gaze. They were still too far away for now, in a subsection of the city. They had no means of transportation and couldn't expect any. Going onto a bus would mean going visible again, lest they have someone try to sit in their seat. They would have to walk if they wished to remain invisible. And now that he'd killed that man on the train, people were sure to be looking for them. "Let's go."

C.C. glared, but she didn't say anything. He knew why. He was acting out of character, rushing. But so long as they never mentioned it, they would be able to continue the charade. At least they both knew by now what was and was not acceptable conversational pieces. She wouldn't bring up those he'd left behind so long as he didn't bring up her continued existence. They both started down the sidewalk, leaving wide berths any time crowds started to crush in on them. He pulled his hood further up. Just in case.

"I remember," C.C. said as they turned a corner, "when we thought everything was over."

He felt something in his chest clench. "It is. Something new has started."

She laughed at that, but without any cheer. "Does that mean that your wish has a finite lifespan?"

"It means that my role will never die."

She sighed. He almost felt the echo of it somewhere. He kept his eyes straight ahead. "You'll spend the rest of eternity doing this? For what?"

He said nothing. Really, the idea of eternity had yet to touch him. It had only been a year. Perhaps, over time, he would lose focus. Perhaps he would forget why peace was important. He never really cared about it, anyway. He'd only wanted things for himself, for Nunnally… and yes, for his friends. Throwing away everything for their sakes had been easy. Perhaps in a hundred years, when they were all good and dead, he would lose his purpose. Perhaps he would end up like C.C., hardly caring to choose at all, simply wanting to see an end. But he wasn't there yet. "It doesn't matter."

A crowd came as the light before them turned red, and the two of them rushed into the street. There was so much conversation behind them that it sounded like buzzing in his ears. He felt C.C.'s eyes on him. It took longer than usual for her to look away. "All right, Lelouch."

He pulled his hood further up over his head.


	2. D.D.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suzaku tries to learn more about the strange occurrences. Lelouch meets the immortal responsible.

" _Only the forgotten are truly dead."_

__-Tess Gerritsen_ _

* * *

 

"Thank you, Xingke," Suzaku said, and held out his hand.

Xingke shook it, those eyes of his glaring at Suzaku's mask. The man's hair had grown even longer in the past year. Beside him stood Tianzi, only an inch or so taller, now standing proudly. She, too, shook his hand. "I would like to speak with Empress Nunnally and you about the new trade routes after they're completed, as well," Tianzi told him. "We should look out for attacks, just in case."

Suzaku nodded. "I agree. Until then, take care."

Tianzi nodded and walked off to speak with Nunnally, practically bouncing to the handicapped girl's side. Both Suzaku and Xingke watched her leave. "I have heard rumors of a growing issue here on the archipelago."

Suzaku turned his gaze to Xingke, but the man had yet to look at him. It was difficult to tell whether the man was offering help or heaping more blame. Still, Suzaku refused to hide such a thing from him. "Yes. A sort of vigilante, from what we can tell. The person keeps writing the Japanese symbol for truth beside the bodies."

Xingke's frown deepened. "And have you found this person?"

"No. Extra guards have been placed here for Empress Tianzi's protection." Small talk buzzed in Suzaku's ears like flies as each person in the conference room tried to grab scraps of gossip from another. Even more, the costume he wore seemed to weigh on his shoulders. Lelouch hadn't lied about this, at least; Suzaku had sacrificed a lot himself. In a way, Suzaku's life really had ended that day upon the Damocles.

Nunnally and Tianzi clasped hands and laughed. It made Suzaku smile. "Is it something you need help with?" Xingke asked, his gaze still on Tianzi.

"No, not yet," Suzaku said, knowing by now the game the man was playing. Xingke still doubted Suzaku's motives. Between his cynicism and Toudou's strange stares, Suzaku found himself constantly tense within groups. "If it continues, however, I would not be averse to assistance. If more continue to be hurt, the peace we sacrificed for will be in jeopardy."

Those dark eyes flickered to him, and almost, Suzaku smiled. He saw a light of respect in that gaze. He was making progress somehow.

The rest of the mingling was simpler, as he deflected probing questions and assuaged fears. Nunnally came to stand beside him, and together they saw their guests out of the conference room and into the capable hands of their guards. Only when the room was empty did Suzaku allow his body to slump a bit. His muscles ached.

"You'll give yourself an ulcer," Nunnally said, moving her chair forward and locking the door. One quick button press sealed the windows from the outside world. Suzaku pulled off his helmet and shook his hair out of his eyes. Nunnally watched him silently as he leaned onto the conference table and hung his head. It almost felt strange to feel the air against his skin. And unnerving. He expected someone to walk in and see him, to shout or scream. One sighting, and all that they'd worked for would be gone. His gloved fingers clenched around the mask.

"I saw you and Empress Tianzi getting along," he said, and smiled at her so she knew he was happy for her. She gave him a look that said she knew he was trying to control the conversation and nodded.

"We're close in age. And she's fun." With a soft whir, she returned to his side. "She seems to have faith in you, though Xingke is advising prudence."

"Considering they all knew Lelouch to be Zero, it's not surprising." He rolled his shoulders. "Most others have embraced it, but Xingke and Toudou-san both seem to be having… doubts."

"We'll get through it." Nunnally flashed him one of her bright smiles. Her hands rested calmly in her lap. "There should be an update on the 'Shinjitsu' killer. Maybe we should look into that when we're done here."

He smiled. If he told her he didn't want to leave, she would wait until her bladder burst. And though he didn't want to make her stay, he couldn't find it in him to leave yet, either. The idea of meeting with the witch again, this time with the Requiem complete, made something in his chest knot. Anger started to simmer. Anger that he'd let her go, after all that had happened, all that she'd helped Lelouch do. But he'd had it shown to him rather forcibly how little he could do to change the fact of her existence – the woman had sighed as he’d said she should die with Lelouch, only to pick up Lelouch's gun and shoot herself. Within a minute, she’d been standing again. She'd asked him is she should burn herself, too, and he, in horror, had shaken his head.

Immortal. That was what she’d called herself.

Why __would__ she do this? Lelouch never seemed to antagonize her, only griping at her when she ate several pizzas in one day. There had been a strange sort of relationship between them; Lelouch asked for nothing, she asked for nothing, and they helped one another without words or reason. Lelouch indulged her pizza fetish even as he told her she would get fat, and she helped Lelouch teach Suzaku about Zero's mannerisms even as she complained that Suzaku was too stupid to get it. _Had_ Lelouch asked her? Then why write 'Shinjitsu'? It hinted at something people didn't know. Maybe she was trying to say something – that the deaths were related? In some way other than the fact that each victim was, in some way, dangerous to the peace they were fighting for?

"If she – if C.C. truly is leaving us a message, then we need to find out what it is," he said, knowing he was minutes too late with the comment to be tagging on to what Nunnally had been saying.

"She has to have a reason," Nunnally said, acting as if he hadn’t paused the conversation for several minutes. His brows drew together. Nunnally had known C.C. longer than he. She'd admitted to having known C.C. was a 'friend' of Lelouch's for a long time. C.C. had seemed distant, but not apathetic. Those were Nunnally's words. Suzaku had yet to figure out exactly how that equated to a sort of trust in the woman's motives.

They fell silent once more. He didn't make a move to leave. Nunnally stayed patiently in the room, letting him think. Sometimes it felt like the mask was crushing in on him, pulling his thoughts from his own mind. Like he was nothing, like he really had died and all that was left was the persona. He wondered, in his darkest moments, if this was how Lelouch had felt. Maybe that was how he'd fallen. The old Lelouch, the Lelouch Suzaku had known when they’d been kids, had been hard and tough and rational, but not cruel. Instead, it had seemed to hide a vulnerable level of kindness. Not like the Lelouch that killed Euphie. And Shirley. He clenched his eyes shut. He would not be Lelouch. He wouldn't be taken in by Zero's mask. He would remain Kururugi Suzaku. He wouldn't become something that would make Euphie sad.

"All right. Thank you, Nunnally." He looked at the mask for a short moment before putting it back on.

Nunnally waited until he nodded, then went and opened the windows before unlocking the door. He went to her then and clutched the handles of her wheelchair. They hardly stepped outside when they were met by a lanky guard. "Empress Nunnally!"

"What is it, Will?" she asked, and the young man blushed at the use of his name before saluting.

"It's Lord Xingke, my lady! He's..." The man made a useless motion with his hands.

Nunnally turned around to look at Suzaku – at Zero. "I must go to Tianzi immediately." Suzaku nodded and began to push her, but she shook her head. "I want you to take a look at what we were discussing before," she said.

Suzaku hesitated, then nodded. He let go of the wheelchair. The guard, Will, took his place. Suzaku looked at the man. "I hold you responsible," he said, and the man paled. His salute was slightly sloppy.

He watched them leave, knowing Will the Guard would feel his stare. Xingke was getting worse; his time was almost up. The man held himself tall, but his pallor spoke of his condition. He was a little slower as he walked, his eyes a little glassy. Still, the man stood by Empress Tianzi's side.

The halls of the Britannian Palace were white and streamlined as Suzaku walked through them. The Britannian banners had been interspersed with the United Federation of Nations' flag, until lions and snakes and doves seemed to fill his vision. By now, the pictures were almost normal. He only noticed them because he willed himself to do so.

He went to his personal 'office' and found both General Miyamoto and Schneizel awaiting him. Miyamoto sent Schneizel a nervous look, then caught Suzaku coming forward. "Sir," the man said, and saluted.

Schneizel fell into an immediate bow. Suzaku snarled, but he did it silently. More of Lelouch's work. "Have either of you found her?"

Miyamoto answered in the negative, but Schneizel stood. "I have searched, as Miyamoto, all transportation vehicles. Nothing. So, on the assumption that she will be avoiding people, I had men search for unobtrusive paths." He held out a small disk. "They have narrowed her route to four different options."

Suzaku took the information and turned to Miyamoto. "Anything to add?"

The man cleared his throat. Once more, Suzaku found himself frustrated with the man; he seemed terrified of the mask. "We have people out looking, and every transportation service has been ordered to report anyone who matches the description. Otherwise, __his__ information will be most helpful."

Suzaku frowned. If C.C. was suddenly avoiding being seen, then she could well be invisible again. She wouldn't likely be spotted by any of Miyamoto's men. "Can these estimated routes help us find out where she may be headed?"

Schneizel shook his head. "No. We would need another sighting."

Of course they would. "Set up roadblocks along these four areas," Suzaku said, waving the disk. His voice, altered through the mask, sounded almost angry. "Make sure nothing can pass, not even a bug. Act as if she's invisible."

Miyamoto's brow furrowed, but he saluted and bowed and said, "yes, sir." At least the man walked out with a straight back. It was sometimes the only evidence Suzaku saw of the man’s years of military service.

Schneizel bowed once more as soon as the door closed. "This woman troubles you?"

Suzaku frowned behind the mask. Schneizel had no real free will anymore. He always followed Zero's orders – Suzaku's orders – without question. He also rarely made his own initiative. Worse, the man never talked unless it was about an order. No wonder Miyamoto seemed nervous around Schneizel; he was now little more than a robot. Even Suzaku wanted little to do with him. Maybe it was the memory of the man's manipulative nature when he'd still had his own personality. Maybe it was because robots had no reason to keep secrets. Or maybe it was simply because Suzaku didn't trust anyone save Nunnally with any of his.

In any case, he waved Schneizel out. It took him a moment to adjust, again, to the tension that kept his muscles taut despite being safe for the moment. Then he went to his sofa and sat, leaning his head against the back for only an instant. If someone came in and saw him in anything other than perfect condition, he would be seen differently. Lelouch had created Zero to be a perfect being, never tired – never wrong. One thing he'd made perfectly clear was the need to continue that lie. Zero had to be as strong as his convictions.

On that thought, Suzaku sat straight again and simply closed his eyes. One good thing about the mask: dark circles, sweat, fear, surprise – none of it could be seen. The cloak, too, helped hide knee-jerk reactions. Lelouch must have thought of such before having the outfit made – by whomever. Lelouch had simply assured him that no one would ever come forward with the knowledge. His damn Geass again, no doubt.

Miyamoto entered the room then, hardly giving him a cursory knock as warning. Suzaku stayed in his chair, but straightened. "Sir." Another salute. "The roadblocks are being set up."

"Remember what I said." Suzaku glared at the man, and once more Miyamoto started flagging under Suzaku's stare. "Watch the very wind."

Miyamoto nodded and left with one last salute. Suzaku closed his eyes again and wished he could rub his temple. He couldn't be sure if C.C. even had anything to do with the attack, but the very idea of her being in the same place at the same time… it seemed far too convenient, even for him. And though he didn't think she would be caught by something so obvious as a roadblock, he couldn't think of anything else. The best of the best were on the job. That would have to be enough.

He stood and looked out the windows. They were large, the glass spanning from a foot off the floor to a foot from the ceiling, each attached to one another to make a wall of glass. Just off from the garden, just out of his room's sight, a koi pond sat. Another rested in the garden in the back of the palace, per (once again) Nunnally's request. He didn't put his hand to the glass, though he wanted to. The sun was warm, but night was falling, and so the warmth was no longer stifling. Through the tint of the mask, he saw the sky turn orange. He worried for a moment if he shouldn't be checking on Empress Tianzi and Xingke. Nunnally, however, was the social interaction. He merely showed his face to promote the ideas of justice and unification. If he showed himself too much, he would seem to be taking over, just as Lelouch had.

It meant he would have nothing to do until those roadblocks turned up something. His lips thinned. Until then, he could only imagine what C.C. might be doing.

* * *

"Lelouch!"

He glared at her, even though they were both invisible at the moment. "Really, C.C.?" he hissed, but she just rolled her eyes. The night was coming; gray slid across the sky. They had to wait for night to fall, then trek across more populated areas. If Lelouch had calculated correctly, C.C., who had been visible while they'd been on the train, would be a suspect in the death of Pete Granger. With that Immortal woman marking each of his kills, each terrorist death he'd tried to cover up as an accident were now linked murders. He missed his Geass, much to C.C.'s amusement. It would be easier to tell people to get out of his way, or order them to pretend he wasn't there. It made it obvious to him just how much more impossible destroying Britannia would have been without the Geass' strength.

C.C. went traveling, of course, wandering from store to closing store as the minutes ticked slowly by. Lelouch stuck to a wide alleyway and avoided any who might come near. He felt like a thief.

Finally darkness descended over Tokyo, and they were able to get onto the last bus ride. Thankfully, the bus was sparsely populated, but still Lelouch had to show himself, remaining hunched under his cloak and trying his best to look homeless. People gave him a wide berth, and C.C. was able to sit invisible beside him without being touched.

The ride was slow, and when finally they reached the last bus stop of the night, they were still far from their goal. They were in the middle of Tokyo, still a good few miles from Zero's base, where guard after guard resided. And since their goal was to find the white-haired Immortal while still maintaining no contact with its prey, Zero… and of course, there was no doubt that the woman would also wish to uncover the truth about Lelouch's death, so that had to be stopped, as well… not to mention how his very involvement couldn’t help but play into her hands…

Still. He would win.

"Lelouch, look."

They were stepping off of the bus when C.C. spoke, pointing ahead of them and to the left. It was where they were headed; just another kilometer or so and they would be by the old Britannian estate in which Zero resided. Lelouch hissed and pulled the woman out of the way of a couple, almost yelling at her before remembering that he was visible. The couple gave him a strange look, then, taking in his deliberately haggard appearance, quickly looked away again.

He watched them until he was certain they were gone. Then he looked to where C.C. had pointed. It wasn't hard to see what had grabbed her attention. A small group of people surrounded a brick wall, already home to several pieces of urban art. One seemed to be more interesting than the others; simple red English letters sat beside two giant red kanji symbols. By now, Lelouch knew what they meant. "Shinjitsu," he murmured, and read the English letters. His eyes widened. "Destroy it," he hissed, and shrank back. Police were coming now. He dropped his head and hunched in on himself, trying to look old.

"Oh? I find the artwork fascinating," C.C. said, but finally she shrugged. "Fine. You owe me."

"I know it," he said, his voice hardly carrying at all. C.C. must have heard it, though, because she laughed as she went to do as told. His eyes strayed back over to the wall. It surrounded a small park, created to give children somewhere to work off their steam outside of the small apartments. Children and teens had already made use of the blank space on the wall to serve up inspiration. It had been on the list for demolition since before Lelouch's death. He hadn't squandered the money on such an expense – after all, tyrants didn't care about the beauty of the landscape – and apparently Suzaku had been too bogged down with other matters to be bothered. But now the new message stood out beside that damned 'truth' symbol, almost popping out among the more ornamental pieces. __I never wanted to use it on you,__ it read. __Live on!__

Lelouch watched as the police started clearing the area. It wouldn't do for Suzaku to hear of this. Lelouch read it again, then again. Suzaku, if no one else, would understand what it meant. Or at least __could__ understand it. If these men sent the message to Suzaku, then he may begin to learn things he was better off not knowing. He may also get involved in the case, which would mean walking about these streets, leaving himself open to whatever C.C.'s immortal friend may have planned.

Too bad Lelouch didn't have his Geass.

Lelouch passed through the grumbling crowd as it dispersed and clutched one policeman's sleeve. The giant pulled it free and turned to Lelouch. "Sir, clear the area."

Lelouch pointed back behind him. "A man went running past me a couple hours ago," Lelouch said, keeping his head low. "Right past me where I was sle… was. That's good information, right? Good enough for a dollar or two?"

The policeman waved his buddy over. "What did the man look like?"

Lelouch shrugged. "Dark hair, dark eyes, dark hood. Maybe I could remember…" He held out a hand and rubbed his fingers together. The policeman sighed.

His buddy, thinner and shorter by large degrees, grabbed a notepad from his front pocket and turned back to the wall. "I don't get what it says. I'm gonna write it down, 'kay? You get this guy's info, 'kay?"

"No info's coming yet," Lelouch said, and willed C.C. to hurry the hell up. "Just dark. The alleys can get dark, you know?"

Lelouch's first policeman sighed and pulled out his wallet. "Here's a five," the man said. "You won't get it unless you 'remember'."

Lelouch bobbed his head only slightly, but someone started shouting from behind them before Lelouch could say anything more. The policemen looked to the scream, but Lelouch turned to the wall. C.C. had chosen something slightly stupid, yet brilliant. No wonder someone was freaking out; to others, it would look like a spray can was dancing in mid-air, spraying over the message. A distraction from both Lelouch and the words, and a beacon for both Suzaku and the Immortal they chased.

Lelouch felt his heart triphammer and turned to the cops. The screamer – of course it was a woman – was pointing to the wall, making everyone turn to watch the spectacle. Lelouch went invisible then and went to C.C.'s side. "Just get rid of that last bit!"

"Shut up, I am!" she said, and scribbled black paint over the last two words. Now the 'live on' part, at least, would be gone.

"H-Hey! Stop that!"

Lelouch turned, but the policemen weren't staring at them. Their eyes were on the spray can. C.C. ignored them and continued. Both of them drew their guns. Lelouch turned back to C.C. "Time to go."

C.C. dropped the spray can. Somehow, she’d managed to cover the worst parts of the message, until there were little more than red lines hidden beneath the spray. "There will be more like this, you know." Both stepped away from the message as the two officers went to the wall and cursed. "She must have been close enough to you to record your memories or something."

Record his memories. Lelouch's lips thinned. "She can do that?"

"I guess. I don't know." The officers were arguing with each other over who had to call it in – and what they would say. "She always seems to know people's thoughts. She puts several peoples' memories together and comes up with what she calls 'truths.'" C.C. put her hands behind her head and watched as the shorter of the two finally sighed and pulled out his phone. "Then she goes to whoever needs to know the truth and shows it to them. That would most likely be the reason why the witch trials ended – D.D. told Governor Phips about the truth of the trials."

"The people who need to know," Lelouch said, testing out the words, and shook his head. "No one need ever know about our truths."

C.C. hummed, but Lelouch couldn't be sure if it was in agreement or not. Sometimes, as they sat on the outskirts of a forest or in a deserted town, he could sense the boredom and even restlessness in her. After all, her wish hadn't been fulfilled. She undoubtedly wanted to find someone who __would__ answer her wish, since he had failed to. It was most likely only a matter of time before she left him to search once more for her own dream. He couldn't hold her back; she'd done more than enough for him.

"For now, we need to find the rest of her messages and find out just what she's shown," Lelouch said. "She'll most likely have chosen similar locations – large public areas with minimal initial shock value. The next nearest place for that is…" Lelouch turned with a frown. It was in the opposite direction of their intended target. D.D. may want them to turn back, to move away from Zero and thus give her the opportunity needed to get close to him.

She revealed truths and erased lies. In either case, Zero would be in danger. Lelouch needed to make sure D.D. didn't succeed in either mission. Still, whatever truths D.D. may want to reveal also had to be stopped, and that included her little wall missives. Of course, if they separated, he and C.C. would be that bit more vulnerable.

He looked to where the estate stood. He couldn't see it past the skyscrapers, but he knew it was there, ostentatiously lit despite the late hour. He knew he wasn't thinking straight, coming out into the open like this, following an Immortal toward what could easily be a trap. The best he could do was turn the game around, even if it meant entering the game at the last few turns. He was already in check before he could even sit before the board.

And the king had to go first. It was why he was here.

Finally C.C. sighed. "I'm going, I'm going." He turned to her. She was already walking away from him. Away from the estate. She flicked her hair as she turned to speak to him. "You take care of the boy. Just remember – you can't die, but you can be paralyzed."

"I remember what you told me." C.C. just flicked her chin up and sauntered off. She didn’t wave goodbye. He sighed and turned away, as well. Of course, if she had, he would have been concerned. That was just how it was.

It was dark, and the city's lights hid the stars. He stopped and pressed against a condominium as a group of teenagers pushed each other and giggled. They were dressed in deliberately ripped clothing, moving a bit less than gracefully. Despite their ages, they’d somehow managed to get into a bar and access the drinks. The teens barely passed him without touching him, though one turned and looked back as they passed. Lelouch looked each way before stepping onto the street again.

Being Immortal was still new to him. He remembered C.C. talking to him after he’d found himself still alive, his mind still somewhat fuzzy and swimming with memories of the sword digging into his gut. He'd been taken to a field, dumped on the ground, and left for the birds. He remembered C.C., her face serious as she told him what immortality would mean. It meant rapid regeneration. It meant a loss of Geass and impunity to its touch. It meant finding his body unable to move after being 'killed,' and it meant, of all things, an end to his hair and nails growing. V.V. alone had his hair continue to grow, and only because he had been so young when he'd gained his Code. It had also meant – and hear C.C. had looked ready to cry – living beyond everything else, watching as everything around him fell and rotted and disappeared as if it had never been. Suzaku and Nunnally, Kallen and Milly and Rivalz. They would all become dust, and the world would continue without them, and no one would blink at the loss.

Still, even if it was inevitable, Lelouch would see to it that they lived long, peaceful lives. It was what he'd accepted the curse for. Why he'd fought. Even now, he couldn't stop. He'd launched the Geass Directorate in order to stop the Geass from existing. He'd made it so that only he, Rolo, and C.C. had the curse inside of them, and Rolo had died. Yet here he was, one year later, learning of a third with the Code, one C.C. had neglected to mention because, as she said, he 'hadn't been Immortal then.' He wanted to curse her. She hadn't mentioned it even after he'd become Immortal, and he had to believe it was because she owed this D.D. some sort of loyalty.

Whatever bond C.C. had with D.D., it might become a problem later. Testing C.C.'s loyalty to him might push her away. They held a strange bond themselves, one he couldn't trust to be impenetrable. It was one unspoken, one never touched, a small thread that shimmered, almost invisible, between them. She'd kept several secrets from him. How many secrets had she kept from D.D.?

He rubbed his temple. That wasn't important. For now, she was taking care of the quotes, presumably following D.D.'s own plan for the two of them, though why the woman would want him alone was, for now, in question. Perhaps she simply wanted C.C. out of the way, perhaps out of the line of fire. Of course, that would mean that the relationship between the two of them was more intimate that he was comfortable testing. C.C. had already shown that she was willing to lie to him to protect D.D. If that went both ways…

In the end, while he was beginning to understand D.D., he didn’t have enough information yet to act. For now, his objectives remained the same. Keep the truth hidden and protect Zero. The problem was that, in chess, while Suzaku would be a knight and C.C. a rook, he was the king. The master of the field, certainly, but not maneuverable. For him to survive, he needed other pieces to protect him. His lips thinned. He didn't have such a thing anymore. In other circumstances, that would be fine, but now…

"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand."

Lelouch turned. Behind him stood a woman decked out all in white. Lelouch felt a shiver flick up his spine. He'd been right. She'd wanted him alone. He smirked and threw his head back. "Well, well. You don't waste time."

"Time's glory is to calm contending kings, to unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light."

He frowned. The words seemed familiar, but he couldn't say from where. The woman hardly seemed to be moving; he almost doubted that she even breathed. She stood like a statue in the middle of the road, not hiding herself as he did. Her skin was pale, so pale it shone almost silver in the lamplight. Her clothing was white, as well – white pants, white blouse, white belt. She even had a white choker. It all made her seem wraithlike. Someone looked at her funny as they crossed the street, but she was oblivious to the stare.

He thought furiously. He couldn't die, at least not conventionally, and he'd never had reason before to ask what Charles' maneuver – the one that would kill Immortals – would have been. Something that involved touch, obviously. He needed to avoid D.D.'s touch. Would the cloak be enough, or were clothes superfluous?

"And thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; and enterprises of great pith and moment, with this regard, their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action." Recognition flickered in Lelouch's mind, but she was already moving, a garden ornament breaking free of its confines, and with a sedate step, she entered his private space. He hopped back, glaring at her, and she paused. There was no flicker of emotion; she wore neither amusement nor frustration. She didn't even speak her own words, but those borrowed from others. She was like a blank canvas, white and empty, devoid of anything. Like C.C. on overload. How much time had this woman seen?

He didn't know enough about her to know what might change that frostbitten countenance into something more human. Didn't know if the possibility even existed. He narrowed his eyes. "You seek truth, isn't that right? Then how do you know my thoughts? How did you know what I'd thought back on Shikinejima?"

She didn't falter, but took another step. He looked into glassy blue eyes and felt that shiver again. He didn't know where she'd come from or what she wanted with him. "Many yet," she said, "are the truths of God which will be unfolded as they are needed."

God? Lelouch knew, vaguely, whose words she was speaking, how they were said on the shores of what was now Britannia, but she couldn't mean __God__ , as if some higher being had spoken to her. Not unless she was insane. She most likely meant the God that Charles had referenced, the collective unconscious of all people. Lelouch bared his teeth. He'd locked the entrance to the Thought Elevator here in Japan, but there were doubtlessly others. Could they all lead to 'God'? Would his thoughts be recorded inside? How could they be found?

She stood right in front of him, but as he stared she moved, disappearing from his sight. He jumped and turned perhaps faster than Suzaku could. She was behind him, her hand raised. He stumbled back. Still there was nothing on her face. Again she dropped her hand. "The fact that you exist is an error."

Lelouch flinched. On instinct he reached for his gun, hidden deep within his cloak, but she got close again and he had to back away lest she reach out and touch him. He felt his heart thudding hard and heavy in his chest. Of all the quotes in the world, she had to choose that one. He could remember Suzaku's face as he’d spoken them, the wide eyes and trembling hand. The fury. Lelouch had only thought to catch her, to use the paralysis that came with 'death' and truss her up before she finished regenerating. If that didn't work, then he was stuck. His first thought had been to protect Zero. He hadn't thought she would come for him so quickly. It didn't follow what she'd done so far.

"The object of the superior man is truth," she said. Lelouch pulled out his gun then and to hell with it, but she simply came forward and grabbed it. When he tried to pull the gun free, she touched his chest. "I am in no mood to be deceived any longer by the crafty devil and false character whose greatest pleasure is to take advantage of everyone."

Lelouch paused, unsure, but she just stepped back and ran into the building beside him. He cursed and made to follow, but as she slipped inside, a group of businessmen came out. He had to dodge them to avoid a collision. He cursed again.

As soon as they were in their cars and gone, he opened the door and jumped inside, but of course she was gone from sight. He ran to the back, anyway, careful of the couple standing in the lobby and the man taking his trash to the back room. The walls were slate gray, the floor tiled. He had to slow down to keep from making noises as he ran. Finally he reached the far end, but once again there was nothing. She would have easily left the building, not having to worry about sneaking around. He, on the other hand, noted that his hood had fallen down in his hurry. He tugged it over his face again and waited for the man with the trash to leave before going out the back door. He hid against the outer wall then and just let himself get his breath back for a moment.

It was clear she was still going after Zero. She would hunt down the lies and expose them. Having met her was, in fact, fortuitous. He now had pertinent knowledge that he could use to plan his steps more strategically. Instead of sitting before the board with all the moves already made, he had now seen her first reactions to his own movements. He was starting to see the pattern. Attack and dance away, open chasms in defenses and pull back. She was the type to test, to toy with the enemy before striking where they were most vulnerable. And despite himself, he'd shown her several vulnerabilities. Each led to Suzaku – to Zero. She would know. If she truly was going after Suzaku, she would know he intended to follow. She would want him to – that would be where she turned against him again.

He couldn't allow himself to be caught unaware. Not where Suzaku might see him. He and Suzaku had come to an uneasy truce, all because Suzaku had truly believed that Lelouch would die. He would pay for his sin and be gone from the world. It was what Suzaku himself had deemed necessary. __"The fact that you exist is an error."__ How would Suzaku react if he found Lelouch to be immortal?

No. It was better if he remained dead to all. Zero Requiem demanded the end of his existence. He couldn't let it all fall apart now. That, too, was why he was back in the city.

He studied the small alley in which he stood. There wasn't much room; a parking facility rose behind the building, swerving up several levels in order to maximize space. Beyond that structure stood another building, also made to house several families. Within the small space behind the building, most likely to give smokers a small niche, there was nothing but concrete and litter scattered around a large trash bin. The bin went up to Lelouch's height, clearly made by someone who thought women would never have trash to toss. In one place by the bin, the concrete was slightly cracked, and a few small weeds shoved their way through. A couple soda cans sat, feeding the weeds all the sugar they needed.

He shoved away from the wall and looked up. The sky was almost impossible to see. Even in the small back area, a light stood vigil against the darkness, giving smokers a small sort of safety. He shuffled off. He could guess, now, what D.D. had wanted with him. Just as he'd known nothing about her own moves, she had known little of his. For every thought she might have received from the Elevator – from the unconscious known as 'God' – there were breaks, gaps in which even the Elevator may not be able to fill. She would know that he was the mastermind behind it all, but knowing how he would react within certain situations – that was what she'd wanted. And he'd shown her a number of weaknesses. Not only Suzaku, but his identity itself. The cloak while remaining invisible meant he was afraid of someone seeing him.

But she had revealed a few, herself. He looked around as he turned away from the back alley and back onto the main street. She would be heading to Suzaku, possibly to test him, as well, but perhaps also to attack. She would use the words of the past to force Suzaku to think of her meaning himself, to read guilt in his own heart. And Suzaku had plenty of guilt, and plenty of heart.

She heeded those words of the past, though, and that was a weakness. She didn't think for herself. Truth was so integral to her it consumed everything. Wearing white, speaking in the 'truth' of the past, pushing and pulling. He was beginning to see how she moved.

He grinned. Finally, he could start his counterattack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> D.D.'s quotes, in order:  
> Alexander Graham Bell  
> William Shakespeare  
> William Shakespeare  
> Henry Ward Beecher  
> Kururugi Suzaku  
> Confucius  
> Camille Claudel


	3. Blind Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> D.D. makes her next move. So does Lelouch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Only the forgotten are truly dead."
> 
> -Tess Gerritsen

Miyamoto glared at Schneizel, standing like a robot just inside the door to Zero's room. Suzaku stood by the desk, watching as Miyamoto practically bristled. "The officers swear to their stories, sir, and they're oddly consistent."

Suzaku nodded. He could understand why Miyamoto was suspicious of his men's reports, but for Suzaku it only cemented his own belief. But why would C.C. cover up the words? Who, then, had put them there? "The message. What was it?"

Miyamoto made a disgusted sound. "That's the best part, sir. They didn't get it. They were going to write it down, but a homeless man distracted them and when they turned back, the message had already been covered up by the spray can ghost." He waved a hand as he said the words, as if shooing away a particularly pesky fly. "They said the message had something to do with living on or something, but they forget the rest."

Suzaku just barely managed to control the flinch in time. Thank goodness the message had been covered. If it stated anything linking him to Suzaku, or him to Geass, everything he and Lelouch had sacrificed for would go up in smoke. He took a deep breath. "And have your men canvassed the area for any other messages?"

"They're looking now."

Suzaku frowned. Chances were that none of them would be found. That cursed woman would most likely have started her own search. But what in the world was going on? "Make sure they canvas the city. It may be late, but these messages may be important. Bring whatever they find straight to me. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" Miyamoto saluted and hurried out of the room.

He turned to Schneizel. "I need you to watch over this. No matter what, anything that may incriminate me must be destroyed."

Schneizel bowed. "Yes, Zero." He, too, stood and walked out. The room was eerily quiet without their presences, and Suzaku felt the thrum of tension between his shoulder blades. Why would C.C. write a message, only to cover it up? She would have no reason to, which meant she was only doing one or the other. He wanted to believe that she was the one covering the message, that the one who wrote it was normal and human and couldn't become invisible, but he'd spent time with Lelouch that last month, and he'd had time over the past year to study the strategies that had given Lelouch victory, and he couldn't just brush aside the idea that something much larger than he could anticipate was happening. If it was a war between two Immortals, then all hell would break loose.

But what other Immortal was there? Lelouch had said that he'd killed all others with the Geass, and after Emperor Charles' death, only C.C. had remained as an Immortal. Unless that wasn't true. Maybe Lelouch had lied again when he'd said he'd erased Geass. Hadn't he called Geass a wish? That wasn’t a word used for something someone wanted destroyed.

Suzaku's hands clenched to fists. But no, that wasn't right. Lelouch was many things, many abhorrent things, but he had known, in the end, what Geass was. Hadn't he? It was so easy to doubt Lelouch now. The man had sacrificed everything for victory. He'd killed Euphie without a second thought. Perhaps it had been for peace. Then again, if Lelouch had thought the continuance of Geass necessary for peace, then…

Suzaku held no illusions that Lelouch wouldn't lie to him about keeping Geass on the planet. With so many other lies, what was one more?

Perhaps C.C. had been in charge of the users of Geass still remaining, and one was running amok. That would make sense. Had she told the other Geass users about him, or was it this one's ability? He knew they differed; he'd been shown that when Emperor Charles had used his Geass on Lelouch.

Almost he called for Schneizel to return, but it was more important that whatever information was out there wouldn't cripple his efforts. Whatever danger he was in, it wouldn't kill him. Nothing would but old age or, maybe, some disease he couldn't stop. On bad days, that thought was enough for him to wish for radiation poisoning.

Outside, only the lawn lamps illuminated the night, shining off of the flowers and trees and creating an almost romantic setting. Suzaku had no doubt that it was all done for Nunnally's benefit. He thought he saw a cricket hop from a flower, but couldn't be sure. A part of him wanted to get away from the windows. He considered it for a moment before flipping the cosmos the metaphorical bird and turning away. He had to attack, not defend. If C.C. was doing something with Geass, then he needed to put a stop to it.

With that in mind, he left his room and started down the still-bright corridors to the far wing, where Nunnally undoubtedly still waited by Empress Tianzi's side. The halls were even more silent than usual, and every step he took echoed. The banners flapped slightly as he passed. He heard an almost-squeaking sound and paused, moving slightly to the side. Around a turn came Nunnally, her eyes on the floor as she maneuvered her wheels around the sharp angle. He shifted slightly to tell her of his presence, and she looked up at him with a smile. "Zero! How good to see you!"

He nodded slightly and took his usual place behind her, gently pushing her down the hall. It was unnecessary, but it gave them closeness, and him an excuse to stand near her, murmuring secrets into her ear. At many diplomatic functions, the act had become essential. She closed her eyes and leaned back. "How is Li Xingke?" he asked.

"He's doing well," she said, but she bit her lip. "For now. It's getting worse, and Tianzi's having a hard time watching."

He knew the feeling. He'd watched someone he loved die, too. "Are they resting now?"

She sat up a bit straighter. That question was not normal. "Yes."

"Then, if you're not too tired yourself, I have something I would like to discuss with you."

Nunnally kept her eyes closed, but it was most likely only to keep up appearances. He was passing his office and moving beyond, past several stationed guards. He watched them out of the corner of his eye, not turning his head. It would look as if he wasn't giving them even a passing notice. Nunnally, in turn, kept her lips lifted in a smile and nodded once. "All right. I'm not very tired, and if there's something I should hear, I would prefer now to later."

It said something about the trust placed in them that none of the guards questioned them. The halls widened slightly as he took her to the garden. The smell came even before they turned into the right hall, filled with rich aromas and a sort of heat that greenhouses seemed to emanate. The garden was indoors and its upkeep maintained year-round. It had more often than not become both their haven and their meeting place, and the guards stationed at the doors already held them open. When they passed through, the guards closed them before moving to the other side of the hall, far away from the garden’s entrance. Both Suzaku and Nunnally waited for the ritual to be over before speaking. "What is it, Zero?"

He clenched his fingers around the handles of her wheelchair. "It's C.C. There's… more."

"What? Did you find her?" Nunnally sounded slightly skeptical. Suzaku could understand why. He let go of the handles and walked around her wheelchair. The garden still held some Eastern horticulture, but it was confined to the West area, while the rest was all Japanese in origin. Rows of Japanese maples lines the cobblestone walkways, Burgundy Lace and Bloodgood and Dwarf Reds. Garnet maples, almost short enough to be bush-like, sat beside a black metal bench. The bench had been used only a short number of times, and usually by visiting officials. By the bench and around a slight bend sat the koi pond, maintained to crystal clear perfection by the fish themselves. Suzaku could see a few of them swimming idly to and fro, their orange and white scales seeming to shimmer. He touched one of the maples and sighed.

"We didn't. If she doesn't want to be found, I doubt she will be. No, the problem is that there is most likely someone else involved."

He watched as her brow puckered. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Someone else? Helping her?"

He shook his head. "No. There was a graffiti'd message on a wall. It, too, had the 'Shinjitsu' kanji marked beside it, just like the bodies, but this time a spray can stood and sprayed over it all on its own before officers could memorize what it said. It seems no one else has been forthcoming with what the message may have said, either. I can't really blame them; it's abnormal to see an object move and act seemingly on its own. It’s enough to make skeptics superstitious."

He waited as she sifted through the information, feeling the bark's coarseness beneath the fabric of his gloves. Nunnally wheeled her way to the koi pond and watched those bright tails flicker in the water. "Then we don't know what the message is."

Suzaku's lips thinned. He didn't know how much Nunnally knew about the Geass or what had transpired between him and Lelouch. Did she know about the Geass Lelouch had used on him? While she'd confided in having been a victim, he had stayed his tongue. It had been surprising enough to learn that Lelouch had needed to do so; Suzaku had thought it to be a line Lelouch wouldn't cross. Then again, there were many lines he'd thought Lelouch wouldn't cross. In any case, he hadn't told Nunnally about his 'Live on' Geass, and he wasn't sure he wanted her to know. It was his burden, his curse, given to him by his friend. A punishment for his sin, a penance for his choices, a demand for the future. Nunnally's had been simple, one she could easily move on from. It would no longer touch her. Maybe that was why it was easier for her to forgive her brother.

He shook his head. "It may have something to do with... the curse." That was their code for his taking up Zero's mask.

Of course Nunnally knew he was hiding something, but other than a short, sad look to him, all she did was nod. "But the information was hidden quickly enough that no one understood?"

"So it seems. In any case, it wouldn't be something universally understood." Playing the tiptoe dance with Nunnally didn't feel quite right. It was in him to apologize.

"All right." She leaned down and skimmed her fingers over the water. One fish came up to investigate, nibbling her finger for a moment before giving it up as a food source and leaving. Nunnally giggled before pulling her hand back up. "C.C. would most likely be covering the evidence, then, wouldn't she?"

That's what he wanted to think, but then they were back at square one when it came to the Shinjitsu killer. "Still, whoever's leaving those… notes… has something to do with Geass."

Nunnally frowned. "I can't imagine my brother would willingly leave such a loose end as Geass." Suzaku's lips thinned at that, but he said nothing. "He wouldn't let his efforts be wasted."

That, at least, made sense. "He may have had a plan for Geass beyond his death."

Nunnally didn't look pleased with that, but she nodded, biting her lip as she did. They were silent then, each stumbling through their own thoughts. He leaned against the tallest of the maples, the burgundy, with leaves a dark almost-purple, and watched as Nunnally leaned down and once more teased the fish. She didn't smile this time, though, and he knew it was because of what he'd said. Even more than throwing aspersions on her brother was the fact that __he__ was the one to do so, the one closest to Lelouch. The one who, other than her, should know him best. One of them had to be wrong. Hell, maybe they both were. Lelouch, in that last month, had been more like the Lelouch he'd known. There had been more pain in his eyes, more grief. But it had been him.

Suzaku shook his head. No, he couldn't think like that. If he started thinking of Lelouch as a martyr… no. He'd fallen into that once before, as he'd watched his friend's eyes dim… he took a deep breath. Lelouch had received his own curse, his own penance. For everyone's happiness, he'd substituted his own. Suzaku closed his eyes. In order to bring the wish of peace to life, he'd given all of his own wishes. It wasn't enough to make amends for everything – it wouldn't bring Euphie or Shirley back – but it was everything Lelouch could give.

"Is there any way to stop someone like C.C.?" Nunnally said finally, and Suzaku saw her looking at him once more. "What can we do to stop this?"

Suzaku moved to wave away her words and felt the cape against his hand. He shook his head instead, remembering Lelouch's order: never move the cape unless you intend to make a statement. "Leave that to me. I just want you to be aware. If I'm not with you, make sure at least two guards or Schneizel remain by your side. I'll order him to protect you as soon as he returns."

"What about you?"

His smile was self-deprecating, and he was glad she couldn't see it. "I'll be fine." He thought her eyes narrowed, but she just nodded and let it go. They stayed for a while longer, listening to the silence and relaxing in the short moment before the real world would intrude again. The night carried with it a sense of solitude, as if the very earth was sleeping. He knew it wasn't true; somewhere out there, C.C. lurked. C.C. and someone else, someone potentially as powerful. He frowned. Perhaps even as powerful as Lelouch had been.

"For now," he said, breaking the silence, "you should probably rest. I'll make sure guards are stationed outside your room. If anything happens – even if you just wake up in the middle of the night – inform the guards. It's better to be too careful than not enough."

She nodded. He left his spot against the maple to go to her, encircling his fingers around the bars again. She leaned back until her hair lay heavy against his gloved hands. He felt its weight, but not its texture. She wasn't doing it deliberately, not to upset him and not to flirt. He could see her relaxing as he led her to the garden doors.

The guards came forward and got the door for them as they neared. He pushed Nunnally through. "Set up guards around Miss vi Britannia's quarters. No less than three." The men accepted his orders without question, and one left to do as told. The other closed the garden doors behind them. It was in silence that he wheeled Nunnally to her private rooms. Only the sound of her wheels on the floor marked their passage. Despite having said she wasn't tired, Nunnally's breathing was beginning to even out. He smiled down at her. She'd overdone it again. He needed to pay closer attention. She would work herself to death if given the opportunity.

Nunnally’s rooms sat near his own, on the East Wing of the complex. He wheeled her to them, careful to keep the turns steady so she could rest. Two guards came from the side as they approached. They both saluted to him. "Hobson is coming," one said, and Suzaku lifted his chin in acknowledgment.

He moved around Nunnally's chair, one hand trailing along the handles, and opened the door. As he moved back, he lightly shook her shoulder. She blinked her eyes open and look around. She smiled at the guards as he wheeled her into her room. “Good evening,” she said, and received wishes that she sleep well before Suzaku closed the door behind them.

"Sorry about that," he murmured as he wheeled her further inside. She nodded. She yawned as he moved around the wheelchair and knelt before her. The position was familiar, a decade old. His gloved hands rested on her knees automatically. "At least three guards will be outside your room at any time. I'll send Schneizel to you later, as well."

She smiled. "What about you? When will you sleep?"

"I'll rest after Schenizel comes back. Is that all right?" She seemed to consider it. Finally she nodded, yawning again. He couldn't help another soft smile as she waved him off, still covering her mouth with her other hand. He left her rooms and the familiar strawberry and vanilla colors within. The two guards saluted, and a rushed-walk sound alerted Suzaku to the third member of Nunnally's guard. He waited for the man to arrive before leaving them to their work, staring at them a moment longer than necessary before walking away. It was enough to get them to straighten their spines. Lelouch hadn't left much for Suzaku to need to do in the bluffing department; the strongest men became cowards before Zero's mask. It was... strange. Terrifying. Rewarding. Burdening. It made him doubly aware of every movement he made.

His rooms were only a hallway past Nunnally's, closer to the entrance and made to defend her if the occasion arose. He went into his room and closed the door. He didn't relax until he'd turned on the defense switches. A steel door slid down behind the wooden one. Metal blinds hid the stars. He walked through the white-walled seating area before collapsing on top of the red sofa. The layout was plain and austere, made to be seen. His bedroom was the same. He could afford no knick-knacks, no decorations. Zero had no personality. Zero wasn't human.

He hung his head and sighed. He heard the metal shades fall in the bedroom, too, and heard a small beep that said the alarm had been switched on. He was tired, almost sluggish with the weight of what was happening within the city. His past was returning like a wraith to haunt him. He could feel its cold fingers along his skin, traveling up and down his back and digging its nails into his shoulder blades. It was as he was reaching up to remove his mask that the alarm went off.

He stood and hopped away from where he'd been sitting. The alarm was hooked up to his room, made to alert him to any movement of a separate heat source from his own. If it was going off, then he wasn't alone.

A soft thump alerted his attention to the far corner, and he froze. A yowl broke the silence of the room, counterpointing the soft rustle of the cape he wore. He jerked back as a gray cat started walking toward him. One eye was shrouded by darker fur, making it looked like it got punched in the face. He stared at it. How…? "Arthur?" The cat meowed again and sat, simply contemplating him. He took a step forward.

"Animals want to be with their owners."

Suzaku jerked back, crouching into a ready position, pushing away the cape as he did. He couldn't see anyone, yet that voice had not been C.C.'s. It had been female, but that was as far as the similarities went. This voice was even less passionate, a higher timbre and strangely rhythmic. He narrowed his eyes. Unless technology could now turn people invisible, it was an Immortal. Was she here to deliver a message? "What do you want?"

He heard nothing, but suddenly there was a push against his chest, and only quick reflexes kept him from falling back onto the couch. He spun away and landed once more in a crouch. He strained his senses for something, then let them fall. No matter what, he would survive the encounter. He just had to rely on the Geass placed on him and his soldier's instinct.

"We must respect the past, and mistrust the present, if we wish to provide for the safety of the future."

His brows furrowed. "What?"

He felt a prickle along the edge of his shoulder blades and rolled to his left, landing just in front of the protected windows. He looked to the side, toward the protective barriers. He needed to flip the switch and get them open. But if he did, what would the other soldiers be walking into? The danger was bad enough for him alone, but the soldiers had nothing to protect them – no Geass to tell them when to dodge. And what could this Immortal say? This might be the one who left the message of his Geass on a public wall. He couldn't let them in and have his secret revealed. If people learned he was Kururugi Suzaku, Lelouch's Knight of Zero...

He saw a flash of light off of nothing and twirled away. He had weapons hidden around the room. He would have to reach one of those – his Geass activated, pulling him into a roll just as a bang sounded. Something slammed into the metal behind him and pinged off. A bullet. He cursed as he landed. Someone would have heard that.

"What are you doing this for?" he asked, hopping back up to his feet and kicking where he'd seen the flash of light. Of course there was nothing, and he turned around again. Someone pounded on his door. He heard muffled shouting. "Find Schneizel!" he ordered, his voice echoing through the voice distorter in his mask, and for a moment his voice sounded like Lelouch's. He shivered and focused back on his attacker. "Well? Why are you trying to kill me?"

He still saw nothing, but he moved three inches to the right as another report sounded. This time the bullet sank deep into plaster. "Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue," the voice said, and he followed it as it came closer to him, "stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages."

He blinked. He hadn't understood a word.

"So killing Zero will bring that fame to you?" More banging could be heard outside his room, and beyond that, a small, high-pitched voice, slow with sleep. Nunnally. He cursed.

Whoever his attacker was, they didn't answer his question. Though he'd begun to think that even if she did, he wouldn't understand what she said. Nunnally's voice got louder, more insistent, and Suzaku knew it was only a matter of time before they found a way to get inside. He needed to hurry. But how could he fight an invisible opponent? And if he touched her, would those horrific visions enter his mind like they had with C.C.?

A loud shriek-like cry sounded, then the noise of a laser object melting through metal. The danger his Geass had been about to force him to dodge disappeared. "No matter how sharp a grievance or how deep a hurt, there is no justification for killing innocents." He didn't know what that meant, but there was no way for his enemy to escape so long as everything remained sealed. He had to decide if letting this Immortal loose was worth the dangers of an unknown opponent.

"Stop!" he shouted, but the order was too late. He heard the shriek sound rise to a crescendo before a sharp thunk reverberated through the room. "Who are you?" he asked, even as soldiers shoved against the small slab of metal and ran inside. "Why are you after me?"

He heard nothing. The men split up, searching both the common room and his bedroom. Just outside the room sat Nunnally, her blue eyes open and fierce. A gun sat in her lap, cradled in the folds of her pastel pink nightgown.

"Truth." He jerked at the sound, and the soldiers who had started staring at him swung their guns around, searching for the enemy. He held up his hand to still them. "Truth," she said again, "that fair goddess who comes always with healing in her wings."

What did that mean? Was she... threatening him? Did she intend to rip the mask off of Zero?

"Seal the exits," he said, ordering the men standing like fools in his room. "And fix that door. Do not fear; I will lead you to victory."

Suzaku had never had need to use that phrase before. He remembered Lelouch smiling at him as he'd been told that trick. 'Remember that people will always believe those who speak what they want to hear. And everyone wants to know they're on the winning side.' Lelouch had looked almost sad when he'd said the words, his body laced with the green glow of the lights in the basement Lelouch had Geassed someone into making. 'Take the burden and people will follow you into death.'

Now the words had slipped out, a cause more of year-old habit than because he would think to use them. He wanted to curse Lelouch for making him practice the line over and over, but he could see the soldiers' spines straighten; he actually watched their resolve harden as if quenched in a fire into unbendable steel. The men started out, each calling out which duty they would take, waiting a split second to hear if Suzaku had any other desires for them. There was no hesitation. No doubt. Nunnally watched him from outside the room with a steady gaze. Her hands rested against her gun. "What do you need me to do?" she asked.

Suzaku felt something tight twist inside his throat. Nunnally was ready to kill on his order. His hands shook with the knowledge. The men here expected him to bring victory. They expected him to create miracles, just as Lelouch had. For once, Suzaku saw that the Geass wasn't the only weapon Lelouch had used. How had Lelouch felt, knowing that one false strategy could kill everyone?

"S...Zero?"

He focused on Nunnally again. Her brows were furrowed. "Sorry," he said, his voice too robotic through the distorter to convey the chagrin he felt. "It wasn't C.C. It was… another."

Nunnally nodded. "I'll help the soldiers by the garden to lock up. If I see Schneizel, I’ll send him to you."

Suzaku grimaced, but nodded. Nunnally sometimes had a hard time being around Schneizel, seeing as he was nothing but a lifeless droid, programmed to Zero's – and thus Suzaku's – every whim. But Nunnally had once said, in a sad voice, that her brother had chosen their punishments, and she, too, had her role to carry out as the world's advocate.

"Be careful, Lady Nunnally. I think they're after me, but–"

"I know." She gave him a little smile. She'd never seen death right before her eyes. Not until she'd watched her brother… Suzaku's teeth clenched together with a click. He couldn't think about that. "I'll be all right."

Suzaku nodded and watched as she wheeled herself off. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He couldn't feel the danger anymore, but she had to still be nearby. Maybe he could use his Geass to pinpoint where she was. It took a few minutes, but he felt __something__. It didn't feel quite like what he was looking for, but he'd never searched for someone with his Geass before. Hell.

He would follow the link, but first he had to take care of Nunnally. This was the worst time for this. C.C. was still out there somewhere.

* * *

Lelouch's heart still hammered double-time in his chest. For just an instant, he'd felt his plans crumble to dust as he stood outside Zero's private rooms and saw Nunnally order the soldiers to force their way inside. His throat had seized. His blood had gone cold.

How long had it been? How long since he'd seen his little sister? She'd grown her hair out even further, and was now practically sitting on it. She sat straight still, her spine strong. And her eyes. He'd been standing to her side as she’d ordered men twice her age, and he'd seen those eyes wide open. He wanted, so badly, to go to her, to touch her shoulder and have her turn to him. He could almost see it; how those eyes would blink, how the cerulean skies inside would glitter. She would grin from ear to ear and shriek, clapping her hands...

But no. Most likely she would start crying, and her face would squint up with pain. His heart thumped hard. His existence upon this earth had ended one year ago. For her, for Suzaku, for everyone. That was why he'd left when they'd wheeled the Nd-YAG laser down the hallway. He had to get into position, or else his quickly-erected plan would crumble.

He moved down the halls, feeling lost and out-of-place. This estate had been erected for Clovis when he'd come to live in Japan. It had never before held the banners of the UFN. He'd stayed here himself when he'd been emperor, coming over to the country he’d needed to conquer. He wasn't surprised to see that Nunnally and Suzaku had chosen to stay here while they solved the Shinjitsu murders, but he still felt that the place couldn't be less suited to their goals.

Each turn he took felt both familiar and alien. He had trouble reconciling the halls with the ones he'd traveled just a year ago. The opulence was stark after traveling through the outskirts of the country, living on the land and what they could find. C.C. had complained about it enough times for him to memorize what she would say, but she still never left his side. He had to consider the idea that she'd done so for this moment – for D.D. But for now…

There. He stopped in front of the garden and looked around. The guards he'd seen before had run to Zero's defense, and he took the chance to slip inside, re-locking the door behind him. The garden was dark, just dark enough that the grass and flowers blended into the path, until he wasn't sure that he was stepping on the plants until he did so. The garden had been changed. He'd expected as much, though it would make his life harder. His brow furrowed. He thought he heard water. If he did, that, at least, would make things a bit easier.

He took a few moments to reorient himself with the place; there were more trees, each thin enough to prove they were new. He was getting closer to the water. It was a slow trickle that he heard; all he could think of was that little pond at the Kururugi shrine, with a reed that would fill with water and dump it when it got too heavy, clapping right back up afterward. He didn't hear that repetitive sound, and for that he was happy. It had always grated on his nerves.

When he was fairly certain of his surroundings, he slid to the far corner and crouched, even though, once again, he was already invisible. He heard noises from outside, but for now, he would be fine.

Things were going to get difficult. He had known he would feel pain at the sight of his sister and old friend. He'd thought he'd prepared himself, but his chest ached with want. He'd given it all up to succeed with his plan. At first to die, and then to live forever, beyond the lives of all those he loved. He'd accepted that. He'd achieved that.

He closed his eyes and listened as soldiers raced past, one checking to see if the garden door was locked and then racing off again. He snorted softly. Of course. These fools wouldn't know how to do their jobs if they had a microchip implanted in their skulls.

It became quiet for a time then, and his eyes adjusted enough to see small shapes through the light coming in past the door. The flowers stretched shadows across the floors, overshadowed by thin trees Lelouch thought might be native to Japan. He smirked. Of course Suzaku would want that.

The water __was__ a small pond, though that reed was thankfully absent. He thought he saw movement within. His mind showed him flashes of orange and white and black. Koi. There were koi in the pond. He almost laughed. Was this really at Suzaku's behest? Perhaps the Japanese working here had wanted it. Or perhaps Nunnally. Yes, that one made the most sense. Nunnally would try to recreate Japan's world within this extravagant estate, even if the architecture was boldly European. And no one would have the heart to tell her it was useless. Perhaps they would appreciate the thought, if nothing else.

He stilled as the sound he'd been waiting for approached. A soft whirring, almost indistinguishable as the alarms in the building were turned on. He stood. Nunnally unlocked the door and wheeled herself inside, pausing just within. His heart seemed to thunder. She was haloed from behind by the light in the hall, and through the trees he could see that mass of curls shine in the light. Her eyes were open, but she closed them and took a deep breath. Through memory she went down the path, pausing at the end before the path branched right and left. There were no traditional exits past here, no external doors to lead out. That she knew of.

She tilted her head, and he knew she was listening for sounds. He felt like he should hold his breath. She would probably also be feeling for wind. The walls inside were all bulletproof glass. If one was broken, however, the night air would creep inside. She finally put her head down, apparently satisfied.

"C.C.?"

He almost jerked back. She could sense him? But of course she could. He bit his lip. He couldn't go to her. He'd turned away from her over a year ago, on the Damocles. He clenched his fingers into fists. His existence had ended.

"No, you don't feel like her." Her head tilted to the side. Her eyes remained closed, but her brows furrowed and her lips parted. Her voice hushed. "You feel more like–"

"Nunnally?"

Lelouch clutched his chest at the sound of that voice. His gaze whipped to the door. He hadn't even heard the man approach, he'd been so engrossed in what Nunnally was saying. He was thankful that the distorter muffled the voice the way it had been made to, that there was no piece of Suzaku beyond the mask of Zero. He could almost trick himself into thinking he hadn't yet seen Suzaku. That standing before him was only Nunnally and Zero, his precious sister and his own mask come to life before him. Not his old friend. Not the man who'd wanted him dead so powerfully that the friendship they'd shared couldn't penetrate his hate.

"There's someone in here," Nunnally said, and Zero stopped still. That costume seemed to stretch around the skin of its wearer. Lelouch knew Suzaku was preparing to fight.

He just couldn't, in the end, think of Zero as an entity. Inside was Suzaku, and he had to realize that in order to make his plan work. If he was right, she would come here. She liked playing cat and mouse with her enemy. She would come and speak to Zero – to Suzaku. And though he wasn't Lelouch's knight anymore, Suzaku would do exactly what Lelouch needed of him.

Suzaku left the door open as he entered, keeping an exit available for Nunnally. Lelouch felt something in his chest calm at the sight. Suzaku was taking care of Nunnally. That was something he'd hoped for, that Suzaku's kindness would be enough to protect Nunnally, whom they both cared for.

He saw her then. Her white hair was straight as an arrow as she entered, flashing in the light, though he was the only one to see. She watched Suzaku as he turned to Nunnally, his stance vaguely protective even to Lelouch's untrained gaze. Lelouch waited, his tendons snapping. For this to work, he had to stay in the shadows.

"Zero, behind you," Nunnally said, but Suzaku was already turning. D.D. had reached out a hand to touch him. As Suzaku crouched and pulled out his gun, Lelouch felt a deep sting of relief that he'd used his Geass on Suzaku, after all.

"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight, but no vision."

Her eyes were on Nunnally now, but while Lelouch and Suzaku tensed, Nunnally only cocked her head, keeping her eyes closed. "And what do you envision? Why is it that you've come?"

D.D. moved around Zero as Nunnally spoke, her eyes moving up and down the girl's body. If Nunnally felt D.D.'s eyes on her, she didn't react.

Lelouch slid his hand along the bark of a tree, readjusting according to the new layout. He should be able to do it, so long as Suzaku and Nunnally hadn't changed too much. As long as they didn't do anything completely out of character…

"In all secrets there is a kind of guilt, however beautiful or joyful they may be, or for what good end they may be set to serve. Secrecy means evasion, and evasion means a problem to the moral mind." D.D. flicked her white hair back and stepped away again. Suzaku – Zero – turned to where she'd been. Lelouch bent his knees slightly. It was almost time. All he needed now was for her to light the fire herself.

Nunnally's brow furrowed. "You intend to uncover the truth of Zero?"

"I know where I'm going, and I know the truth." Suzaku lifted his gun, but she'd moved once again. "Allow me to introduce you. This is my knight, Ku–"

Suzaku snapped his hand up and shot her. His shot went straight through her chest, dropping her like a stone to the cobblestones below. Nunnally opened her eyes and blinked up at Zero. Suzaku was gasping for breath; the costume, tight around every part of his anatomy, showed the gasps he took even more than the trembling in his limbs or the frozen aspect of his muscles. Lelouch hurried forward then, hiding within the trees until he was beside D.D. There was only a short amount of time before she would recover.

"S... Zero?" Nunnally twisted in her seat, staring up at him.

"I... I think I hit her."

Nunnally's brows were low over her eyes. She looked around. "Blood. But I don't see her." She turned to where D.D. had stood. Lelouch pulled his own gun out as he neared D.D.'s prone form, ready to shoot her again if he had to. Finally Nunnally nodded. "We need to get more soldiers in here. She's Immortal, so she'll be able to escape if we don't do something."

"We need to get you out of here, Nunnally. Now."

She opened her mouth to protest, and for a moment Lelouch feared he'd pegged her wrong. She'd changed in those last few months. She'd gotten more of a backbone. She'd gone up against him. She'd risked his life. For a short, timeless moment, he felt his heart stop.

Then she sighed. "You're right. I'll leave."

D.D. shifted. Lelouch's heart flipped. Nunnally turned and wheeled out, the soft whir going down the hall. Lelouch watched until he couldn't see her anymore. Suzaku looked down to the floor, roughly where D.D. lay. He lifted his gun again. "You're Immortal, right? You can't die from a bullet wound. I know. C.C. told me."

D.D. moved again, and the shuffling sound alerted Suzaku. He aimed for the movement and fired. A bright spot of blood bloomed from the side of D.D.'s neck. Lelouch found her blood creeping along the flowers to his feet and wanted to curse. Hopefully Suzaku wouldn't notice. He couldn't move now. It would mean getting shot himself, and he needed to be able to move. "You're going to answer my questions. All of them. And in a way that can be understood. That whole 'virtue-famous' thing meant nothing to me."

Lelouch tilted his head. Would that be a quote she'd used? It probably made sense to her, which meant it was something Lelouch should know, as well. Poor Suzaku probably couldn't follow it at all. Almost, Lelouch chuckled. It seemed Suzaku really hadn't changed much at all. Of course, he thought, and his humor died stillborn, that would mean that Suzaku's opinion toward him hadn't changed, either.

"Now show yourself. Or I'll just keep shooting."

Lelouch stopped then. __That__... had not been part of his plan. He looked around quickly, then scowled. The king had to move first.

He stayed low as he raced to the door, shooting at the lock until the door swung open. Suzaku shot at him, over his head the first two times, then just missing his leg. His fourth shot sent fire through Lelouch's right ankle, and he fumbled in front of the door. He swallowed the scream that rose in his throat and pushed the door open. He moved as silently as possible away from it, ignoring the blood that splattered to the floor. Suzaku stomped over to the door and looked out. Lelouch clutched his ankle and flicked the blood out the door. Suzaku fired out there again, then cursed under his breath. He looked around. Lelouch clutched his ankle tighter, hoping his blood wasn't dripping.

"Nunnally," he said, and finally turned away. Lelouch watched, adrenaline screaming in his veins, until he was gone. Then he went back to D.D., injured ankle be damned. Before she could recover, he grabbed her and dragged her inch by inch to the pond,/ He dumped her head into the water and gasped for breath, his hands on his knees. Suzaku would be back soon. He had to hurry. But __hell__ if the term 'dead weight' wasn't over-exaggerated. He cursed, not for the first time, his lack of physical prowess.

"Lelouch."

He flinched and turned, scowling back at C.C. as she walked up from the bulletproof walls on the left. "You should hurry. Suzaku is coming back."

He cursed. "You have a few questions to answer, but later. Help me now."

She snorted and came to his side. "Even when you ask for help, you're bossy. At least you listened when I told you about immortality. Good idea, sticking her in the pond."

"Talk later," he growled, lifting the woman up. She weighed a ton. "If she so much as moves, shoot her."

C.C. just sighed.

"Secure the exits!" Lelouch looked back as Suzaku shouted through the voice distorter, sounding every inch the symbol of justice, "ensure Lady Nunnally's and Empress Tianzi’s safety!"

Lelouch turned back to the bulletproof windows. Back when he’d stayed here, he'd made a few modifications to Clovis' rather elitist building. The fool had thought that his name would stop any and all assaults. Lelouch hadn't been so cocksure. The garden had been upgraded, and he'd kept such information from anyone – including the construction workers involved. He'd Geassed every last one.

Now the only ones who knew about it were himself and C.C. She'd already come through to enter, just as he'd come through the entrance on the other side of the building. "Let's go," he whispered, and with a grunt they dragged D.D. away from Suzaku and Nunnally. Lelouch had to ignore the desire to see them one more time. He was dead. For the world's sake, everyone had to believe that.

That had to be the world’s ‘truth.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In order:
> 
> Kim Kappler  
> Joseph Joubert  
> John Milton  
> Bill Clinton  
> Anne Shannon Monroe  
> Helen Keller  
> Gilbert Parker  
> Muhammad Ali  
> Lelouch vi Britannia


	4. Fragments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With D.D. in Lelouch and C.C's grip, it's time to get some answers. You know. So long as no one gets in the way.

He could hear it all. The praise for Zero, the wails of his sister. He felt his body want to flinch, to turn to her in instant comfort, but he couldn't move. Footsteps pounded, and suddenly people were everywhere, pulling Nunnally from his side despite her shrieks for them to let her go. He felt hands on his body. He thought he might be able to move, but he didn't try. Suzaku – Zero – stated orders, his voice metallic, almost cold, to Lelouch's ears. Was that… how he'd always sounded?

"Don't. We will not be beasts. Take him away and bury him."

It was a kindness he didn't deserve, and one that would cause him more harm than good now. Still, he was surprised at the thoughtfulness. He and Suzaku had talked it out, sort of, as they’d stood beside the Sword of Akasha and looked over the reason why their lives had been formed the way they'd been. Suzaku had asked if Lelouch would continue his lie and free Japan. Lelouch had said there was nothing left to do but finish what he'd started. Lelouch thought about that time as his body was dumped in the back of a truck and whoever had taken him turned on the engine. His body bounced slightly as the truck started down the road. He remembered the disgust in Suzaku's eyes as Lelouch stood before him. He hadn't been able to ask Suzaku to join him. If he ran straight into a third betrayal, there would be no hope for him at all. Then Suzaku had lowered his sword.

It had been a moment for the record books. Suzaku had dropped his sword to his side and asked, in a voice that said Lelouch's answer might be his last, "what do you plan to do?"

He tried his damnedest not to wince as the driver hit a pothole, then another and another. If it weren't for the fact that everyone thought him dead, he'd think the person was doing it out of spite. Perhaps they were, anyway.

The drive was long, and during it he had time to replay that moment, over and over again, when he'd responded to Suzaku's query. "Unless you kill me, you'll find out."

Suzaku, he remembered, hadn't been pleased with that one. He'd snapped at Lelouch. "Tell me!" He'd lifted his sword again.

Lelouch had laughed. He hadn't been able to help it. Suddenly Suzaku wanted to know his convoluted scheme? He hadn't been so damn curious when Nunnally's life had hung on a scale just through a door, when he’d decided to shoot off Zero's mask. There'd been no curiosity. No desire to understand. He'd told Lelouch that his existence was an error. He'd said there was no place for Lelouch in the world. And now? __Now__ he wanted to know what Lelouch was trying to do? It was too preposterous for words. "What's changed your mind, Suzaku? Don't you want to kill me?" He spread his arms wide and smirked.

"Yes. I do." It was through effort of will that Lelouch kept his smirk in place as he dropped his arms. Suzaku's response wasn't surprising, but it still hurt. "But right now, this chaos will only hurt more people. If you can end it…" Suzaku hesitated, then bulldozed ahead. As usual. "If you can end it, then I'm with you."

Lelouch couldn't believe his ears. He had asked for help before the battle that had taken Nunnally, and Suzaku had turned his back on him. Now that Nunnally was dead, suddenly Suzaku was reaching out his hand again? Would this one be yet __another__ trick? Was he being played __again__? If he fell for yet another lie–

"You have my word." Suzaku threw his sword to the ground.

His word. Lelouch wanted to laugh again. As if his word meant anything. As if Suzaku's words held any sort of hope.

He took a deep breath. No. He couldn't allow his emotions to get a hold of him. Not again. He had to think logically. Logic would not betray him.

Suzaku coming after Charles had obviously been on Schneizel's command. Had Schneizel also ordered Suzaku to bring Lelouch back? It wouldn't be surprising if he was still Zero, but Schneizel would think he'd been defeated. If there was a weakness of Schneizel's, it was his arrogance. It even outmatched Lelouch's own. He could be reasonably certain that Suzaku was choosing this path on his own. Still… "Where is your Knightmare?"

"I left it after landing on the island."

There was no hint of falsehood, but Lelouch hadn't seen any at the shrine, either. Still, Suzaku had no reason to lie. With the Geass Lelouch had given him, even if he or C.C. _could_ fight him evenly, Suzaku still would not die.

Of course, logic also dictated that this was a moot point. There was no reason for Suzaku to lie. He'd been thinking about Suzaku wanting to bring him in to Schneizel, but really, what did it matter? Either he was lying or he wasn't. It was over – the king of Britannia was dead. Schneizel had won. Lelouch had no more pieces to play. He cocked his head. "And if I decide to become king of Britannia?"

Suzaku's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

There was no trust between the two of them. Lelouch remembered when Suzaku had believed him unquestioningly. When Nunnally had been taken by Mao, there had been none of this hesitancy. Not between either of them. Suddenly Lelouch wished, fervently, that those moments could be returned. But he'd made his choice. "To change the world, of course."

Suzaku stood before him, his eyes like jade stones. Lelouch's life would only have a chance of continuing if this offer wasn't false. Otherwise, his plans all ended here. He thought he'd made peace with that. It was infuriating to learn he hadn't.

Suzaku nodded. "As long as that's your path, I will walk it with you."

Lelouch let that answer be enough. Suzaku had always been the one who'd held Lelouch's life in his hands. It would only be fitting to have him be the one to cut him down.

They'd found their way out of that hell with C.C.'s help, and when Suzaku had actually allowed Lelouch to choose where they went, Lelouch had felt something unfurl in his chest. If Suzaku truly was offering his help… if Suzaku truly was on his side…

Finally the damn truck stopped, and Lelouch heard the doors open and close with a slam. Footsteps crunched along the path to the side of the truck. There had been two men. One grabbed his shoulders, the other his feet. He tried his best to lay limp. It was hard to do when the two men swung him back and forth a couple of times, then tossed him like a sack of wheat to the ground. His teeth bit into his tongue as he landed, and lying limp meant landing in an uncomfortable position with one arm curled brokenly behind his back. One man spat on him. His eyes still closed, he heard those footsteps – receding. He almost laughed. The two men had given him as much honor as they could muster, but not even Zero could make them expend the effort of digging the evil king's grave.

He waited a damn long time before moving, far past when the sound of the truck disappeared. Far past when he'd verified that absolutely nothing existed around him. Far past even when he'd dared open his eyes, searching with his gaze to verify what he'd concluded with his ears.

When he finally did get up, he couldn't help but touch his blood-soaked clothes, ripped about four inches down by the blade of Suzaku's sword. Lelouch had insisted on the sword being red so that Lelouch's blood would not be seen on Suzaku's hands. Stupidly, he'd ignored his own symbolism by touching the mask. He was almost certain he'd left a bloodstain, though the memory was overshadowed by pain and the fuzzy image of a fading vision.

In the end, C.C. had been right. He was still alive. He'd actually 'killed' his father, and had thus received the man's immortality. He hoped the sign of the Geass hadn't been anywhere easily visible when the men dropped him off here, lest the knowledge be spread and Suzaku learn its meaning.

He looked around. He was in farm country, in the middle of nowhere. He couldn't see the city except as a vague blue-white range of skyscrapers far off into the distance. Fields spanned almost every horizon. One was dotted with trees – a forest, one that most likely led to a shrine. But this wasn't like his memories of the path to the Kururugi shrine. No, that path hadn't had fields that were damaged to this extent. This was… bad. Any crops that might have existed were all gone now, and with it any money the farmers may have gleaned. There were small craters in the earth that spoke of missed targets and the screech of metal. A battle had taken place here, and it was apparent that any citizens had left long ago.

Unknowingly, those two men had done Lelouch a favor.

He entered the abandoned farmhouse and looted around until he found an old pair of coveralls and a beaten shirt. With a frown of distaste, he took off his regalia and put on the old, stinking things, taking the ostentatious clothes and burning them with the oil from an abandoned kerosene lamp. The fool farmers could have ruined the area even worse with their negligence. After his old clothes were gone, he found a torn straw hat and stuffed it on his head, hoping it would at least hide his now-famous features.

It took a couple of days, but C.C. finally came to him as the sun set. He turned to the sound of someone coming, keeping himself hidden from the road and other likely paths by staying in the farmhouse itself, and watched as C.C. actually led a horse-drawn carriage full of hay to the burned-out farm. He shook his head. The woman had the strangest sense of humor.

She didn't get off the carriage, only called out, "you have a hat, don't you?" When he stepped out, she smirked and laughed. "That look doesn't suit you at all."

He waited until he was by the carriage to say, "shut up, witch," and climbed up beside her. "Now that it's official, do you want to explain to me what this immortality means?"

She sighed and tossed her hair back behind her shoulders. "Well, you obviously haven't figured out how to become invisible yet."

He glared at her. "Obviously not."

With a roll of her eyes, she pointed to her chest. "Think of moving through space and time as a line of bait does water. Standing still, sitting quiet, untouched by the goings-on around it. You want to separate yourself from the world so that you cannot touch what's around you. It's a bit more complicated and far more tiring, but think like that and you'll start feeling a sort of tremble in your gut. Then just touch that. Like an orgasm."

He blushed and glared again. He'd closed his eyes to concentrate on doing as she said, but who the hell could concentrate after someone like C.C. threw out a mental image like that? "Dammit, witch!"

She giggled. "That's right; you've never felt one before. Not even with your little pilot guardian." He huffed and closed his eyes again, trying to envision himself as a line of bait, then as a shadow. A shadow existed without notice, moved without ever garnering attention. "Are you sure you're not gay?"

Just as the tingling had begun, it was lost. He snarled. "Woman!"

"Oh, that's right!” she said, placing a single finger to her chin. “You only love one–"

"C.C., shut up now."

She did, but only because his tone said it was now a taboo subject. She hummed a short sound and looked ahead. "Your hair won't grow. Only V.V.'s hair grew, and only because he'd been so young when he'd gotten the Code. Immortality simply means that your brain and nerve cells now can, and will, reproduce… I think. Charles only had the technology to learn about that a couple of decades ago. While they reproduce, you may not be able to move. I'm sure you found yourself unable to move after being stabbed, right?" He grunted an affirmative. "There you go. Where's your insignia?"

He shook his head. "I only had a shard of a mirror. I didn't see anything."

She frowned. "We'll figure it out later. Try to become invisible."

It was a process, but he managed it. When he did, she handed him the reins and drew herself up to lay on the hay in the back. She told him about what had begun after his death, and he smiled as her report mirrored his hopes. Now all that was needed was Zero's persistent presence and Lelouch's continued 'death.'

He'd sacrificed everything, but it had brought him his victory. He smirked.

* * *

With C.C.'s help, they'd managed to tie thick cables around D.D. and wrap them around a pole in the abandoned underground tunnels of the old subway. The place was dark and damp and filled with scuffling sounds that alerted them to the movements of the vermin around them. A poster hung from the wall, tattered and torn and grayed out with age. D.D.'s all-white clothing stood stark against the scenery, the mold on the walls and the cracks in the floor, all shadowed within the dark emptiness of the area. Behind them, about a hundred meters past, was a turn that led a convoluted path back through the subway to the surface. In front was a maze of corridors that led further and deeper into the twisted remnants of the underground.

C.C. stood away from the walls, looking almost upset that her shoes were on the floor. Lelouch was fairly certain he was wearing a similar look himself. "I can't believe you handed control to him like that," she said.

He couldn't believe she was still talking about his using Suzaku to capture D.D. "He wasn't aware, and I had a contingency plan." Lelouch stood with his arms crossed before him, glaring down at D.D.'s form. He'd hit her over the head as she’d struggled to gain movement again. She should be able to raise her head in a few more moments. He, however, might never be able to breathe without heaving ever again. His muscles, such as they were, might also never stop shaking. "This woman. You have yet to explain your allegiance to her."

C.C. eyed him for a moment. "She came when I was injured, like I said. I don't have an allegiance with her or anything."

"Then why didn't you tell me about her?"

C.C. turned her gaze away from him. D.D. hissed in a breath, and both of them stood at attention as she shuddered back to life. Lelouch took one final gulp of stale air before forcing himself to breathe as normally as possible. The woman's hair, straight and white as ice, shimmered as she shook her head. She looked up with those sky-blue eyes and blinked. "For too much rest itself becomes a pain," she said, just barely audible, and leaned her head back.

"D.D." C.C. stepped forward then. "I should have known you wouldn't be content to leave this truth unaltered."

"I have ever confined myself to facts." Her face and voice were still emotionless, but her gaze fell to Lelouch, and as it did something flickered in those eyes. "Thou liar of the first magnitude. A man of such obvious and exemplary charm must be a liar."

Lelouch smiled.

"Yes, yes." C.C. waved a hand as if shooing off a fly. "But I agreed with Lelouch to help create his wish."

If that was supposed to deter her, it didn't. Lelouch watched every nuance of her expression, but she showed neither surprise nor sorrow over C.C.'s words. Though to be fair, she didn't show any triumph or acknowledgment, either. She showed nothing at all. "In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are only consequences."

C.C. sighed.

Lelouch leaned down, balancing on the balls of his feet, and looked into those dead eyes of hers. He scanned her for a moment longer before he spoke. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she said nothing. He had the basics of her moves now; she liked playing cat and mouse, coming for the strike and then dancing away again. She created the fear of being caught in the lie, exposed the truth, and then murdered the liars. The fact that she'd gone to stoke Suzaku's fear was to be expected; it was equally unsurprising, at least to Lelouch, that poor Suzaku hadn't fully understood what was happening. She would be planning to reacquaint herself with Suzaku, perhaps leaving a more threatening message than gunshots and quotes.

Lelouch had managed to kill his immortal father, but it had been with the Sword of Akasha before him and his Geass newly perfected. He felt the shadow press of Charles' fingers against his neck and frowned. Just how was he to destroy this woman? Because obviously, killing wasn't enough.

"Lelouch, do you remember what your father – what Charles was trying to do on Kaminejima?"

Lelouch turned his gaze to C.C. "Yes." He stood, but his gaze slid back to D.D. "I remember. You're talking about how he'd wanted you to give your immortality to him."

"That's right." D.D. had no visible reaction to their conversation, but she watched them coolly. "You could do it, too, you know. Find your way back to the Sword and take my immortality." C.C. waved a hand vaguely in D.D.'s direction. "Or hers."

Lelouch frowned. It wasn't the first time he'd considered the idea. He'd promised C.C. that he would end her immortality, and he'd had no doubt that the option was still available, if only he could figure out how. His previous option of using his Geas was no longer available to him.

The other problem was trying to get D.D. to the location. He had to be invisible. He'd been lucky enough to arrive in Japan without being caught. If he tried to transport her… well, he couldn't see it going well.

He’d initially planned to focus on receiving information. The more D.D. talked, the better he'd be able to predict – and thus control – her. Now, he had a potential way to simply get rid of her. Would it be too dangerous to focus on that when he still understood so little? Or would it be more disadvantageous to wait? "The boats to Kaminejima are few, far apart, and small. It would be a lot harder getting there than it was coming here."

"We likely wouldn't be able to get in the one here in Japan, anyway. You made it rather difficult to return to, remember? We'd have to use the one in London, or the one on North America. The closest are either in old Russia or the Middle East."

Still, what choice did he have? In the end, it all came down to him having to get rid of an Immortal. It would mean taking her to one of those doors and leading her to a creature vastly superior to Lelouch in strength – the unconscious known as God. The only consolation to that fact was that the thing was mindless and obedient.

"Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." D.D.'s white hair fell into her cheeks, practically covering her glare.

It took Lelouch a moment to understand that she believed the unconscious in the Sword of Akasha was actually an ally of hers. She thought she was working for that God and was receiving rewards because of it. His scant knowledge of this ‘God’ wasn’t even enough to fully refute her claim. C.C. had only known the thing as it pertained to Charles' ambitions – or at least, that was all Lelouch had been told. Perhaps Charles had been on the right track when he'd called it God? There was certainly something strange about the thing.

He’d never intended to leave that place untouched. In fact, part of his long-term goal as an immortal had been to destroy it. The plan quickly bumped up to his next goal. As soon as this woman was dealt with, ‘God’ would be next.

"In any case," he said finally, "it would be difficult to get her anywhere while keeping her dead. Do you know of any other way?"

"If I did," C.C. said, "I wouldn't have bothered with you in the first place."

He smirked. That was true enough. "All right." It meant that, no matter whether he chose to hurry his plans or keep pace with them, he would have to find a way to get D.D. to the World of C. Somehow. Lelouch had thought he'd locked himself and Charles into the Sword of Akasha and destroyed that entrance. Chances were good that no one could return, just as he and Suzaku hadn’t been able to after Lelouch had killed his parents.

Could he re-open the much faster route through Kaminejima? He didn't know if he could, and if he tried, would he be able to keep D.D. dead the entire time? Troublesome. Of course, no matter where they went, they would have to keep her under wraps.

If he couldn't reach the Sword of Akasha, made specifically to give humans a way to reach the God within the World of C's perimeter, then he would never be able to get rid of D.D. He would have to do as he’d originally planned and simply… kept her dead. Forever. This would be far more humane. At least she needn’t give him her immortality willingly. After all, Charles had been willing to steal C.C.’s immortality from her. If Lelouch could learn how, then he could do the same.

"We need more information," Lelouch said, disgusted. Before, every situation had been clear: defeat Charles, stop Britannia. He'd been thrust into the Sword of Akasha and had found himself out of his depth, but he'd managed nonetheless – he'd thought – to stop his father's ambitions and close off that world from theirs at least long enough to give him some time. Still, D.D. existed, and had some sort of access to God, and so he had failed. "You've been to the Sword of Akasha in the past year, haven't you, D.D.?"

D.D. looked up through her hair. "I have never been able to grasp the meaning of time. I don't believe it exists."

Lelouch sighed. She meant, of course, that with the amount of time she'd spent as an Immortal, time meant nothing. To someone in their position, he supposed time really couldn't be measured.

Not that he thought she was telling the truth; unless she’d been hibernating, she could have heard Lelouch’s announcement of Suzaku as his Knight at any time from its initial airing to now, with the number of videos still up online. The line about him ordering Suzaku to live on, however, had no air time at all. One of two things would have needed to happen. The ‘God’ would have to somehow have access to every moment of Lelouch’s life or access to every moment a Geass was used. Alternatively, the memories would have needed to be received only during the time Lelouch had been in the World of C, where, through some sort of communication with him, the unconscious would have heard it. Only he and Suzaku had been there _to_ hear the initial words, after all. Which meant either D.D. would have needed to enter the World of C while Charles was in control of it, or else she went to it at some point after he and Suzaku had left.

Either way, letting her know he had gleaned that much gained him nothing. "Fine. C.C. We're going to the one in the Middle East. There are more routes, and the weather would be more accommodating to what we would need." He noticed D.D.'s muscles tensing and cocked his head. "I suppose the talking is over. C.C." He held out his hand. From behind him he could hear C.C.'s huff, then felt the hard, metallic coil on his palm.

D.D. twisted in the cables as he bent to choke her with the cord; Lelouch heard a grating sound from her restraints just before a voice flitted down the empty tracks, the actual words muffled by the echo. The voice was deep, level, and familiar. Toudou. Lelouch cursed and concentrated on the tingle in his gut that he felt regularly now. Once he was invisible, he turned. "C.C.," he hissed.

C.C. sighed and rolled her eyes. "He knows me, you know." She put her hands on her hips. "What do you want me to do?"

Toudou was silent now, as he, for whatever reason, came closer. Lelouch turned to D.D. She wasn't invisible, nor would she try to be. While he had to stay hidden in case Toudou showed up, she simply had to remain visible and let the man rescue her. Lelouch would have a hard time stopping such a thing. Yet even now, D.D. didn't show any emotion. "Show yourself and lead them away," Lelouch said to C.C., displeased with the method but having nothing else to use. "He'll want to speak to you. You'll have about four minutes to lure him as far away as possible before he figures out that you're leading him on. We'll make our way to the docks."

Without a word, C.C. left to do as commanded, and Lelouch focused on D.D. "You can shout for him, if you want. Though it may be difficult to not sound like a madwoman, the way you speak." He smirked. From down the corridor, dangerously close, he heard Toudou shout, then footsteps. They were heading away from Lelouch. The tension in him started to ebb.

Beside him, he heard the grating of the cables turn to a sick squelching rip. He turned and jumped back as D.D. stood, her arms free of her confines and dripping blood like rain. "I don't think I should be underestimated," she said, her voice toneless despite her message.

Lelouch pulled out his gun, but she was already coming up to him, moving faster than he could follow. He smothered a shout that would have alerted Toudou and stumbled back. He didn't know why he was afraid. C.C. hadn't been afraid of the woman's touch, which was enough proof for him that she couldn't just touch him and take his immortality. Her hands and arms were useless at the moment, anyway; she'd cut them to ribbons to get free from the cables. Her arms swung drunkenly at her sides, proof that she must have dislocated them both. Blood drip-drip-dripped to the floor.

Lelouch twisted the pistol in his hands until he was holding it more as a club than a gun. A gunshot would call Toudou straight back to him. D.D. stood just in front of him. Her face was still expressionless, but her breathing was a bit fast. She would heal, but the pain would remain until then. Lelouch turned his back to the wall to keep her away from his blind spot. She moved as if unweighted by pain. Her feet moved like a dancer's. Lelouch barely managed to block a kick, and as he tried to keep his balance, she kicked him again, right on the knee. His leg crumpled, and he fell. His gun clacked on the floor as he tried to catch himself, twisting his finger into an awkward position and breaking it. The echo of the gun on the floor was as good as a gunshot.

D.D. rolled one shoulder, then the other. Great. Now she had her arms back. "If you find truth," she said, her eyes like ice as she looked down at him, "you will become invincible."

Lelouch glared up at her. "Bullshit." He swiped at her foot with the club-pistol. She danced away.

He flipped it around and shot her.

The shot only hit her leg, but she fell to the ground all the same. He knew the gunshot would call back anyone who hadn't turned around at the sound of his gun hitting concrete. At most, he had a few seconds.

Almost as if on cue, Lelouch heard footsteps. D.D. was standing as he did, placing more weight on her good leg than her bad, her eyes still empty of expression. Lelouch raised his pistol.

"Stop!" Toudou shouted. The voice was close. Maybe one corridor away. D.D. was still visible. Lelouch wasn't.

"Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses." D.D. moved to leave, but Lelouch shot her again. One sharp cry and a blossoming rose of red on white, and she was down. Lelouch stepped on her throat and crushed down on it before turning to the clopping of military boots on stone. Toudou was leading the way, his faithful Chiba by his side. Their eyes fell on D.D. Chiba cursed.

"You two." Toudou motioned to two men behind him without turning from the corridor before him. "Search the way ahead. Chiba, stay back."

"No."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow. Never before had Chiba said one word against Toudou, but now here she was, her brown hair still tomboy-ish, her brown eyes still ever on Toudou's back, and somehow, her voice implacable against his. "Chiba."

The two men jogged their way past the two, almost seeming like they were trying to get away from the argument. "No," Chiba said again, but instead of the thing escalating, Chiba simply walked out, her gun ready in front of her. Lelouch watched her come nearer and nearer, watched as she bent down beside D.D. and reached for her neck to check her pulse. If she reached any closer, she would touch his foot. Lelouch bared his teeth and stepped away.

D.D. gulped in air, choked, bucked, then breathed deep. Chiba recoiled. "This could be the woman's work," Toudou said, almost bumping Chiba out of the way. He touched D.D.'s shoulder as she caught her breath. "But why?"

There was nothing Lelouch could do. If he shot at the two of them, they would know another Immortal was around – not C.C., but possibly her ally. And just how many people were her ally? It was a ludicrous leap, but possible, that Toudou, intelligent as he was, would wonder just who would help her, or why, or how C.C. would have met such a person. And if Toudou considered it a link to Geass, who would he think of other than Lelouch? It took only a grain of doubt for the truth to spread. Lelouch wanted to rage. This woman was destroying everything.

D.D. said nothing as Toudou asked her if she was all right. She said nothing as he and Chiba looked her over for injuries – already healed injuries – and, when they couldn't find any, asked her to stand and go with them to the hospital. She said nothing as they led her out. She simply looked at Lelouch, right into his eyes. Emotionless. Lelouch snarled.

From around the corner, C.C. came, yawning as Toudou and Chiba took D.D. from him. "Well. That went well."

"C.C." She looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "Tail them. She won't go to the hospital."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? And what are you going to be doing?"

Lelouch took a deep breath. "I'm going back to Clovis' estate." He smirked. "I need to say hello to my dear brother."

She blinked at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In order:
> 
> Homer  
> Rudolf Erich Raspe  
> William Congreve  
> Anita Brookner  
> Robert G. Ingersoll  
> William Shakespeare  
> Bible  
> Thor Heyerdahl  
> Lindsay Davenport  
> Heraclitus


	5. When Doors Are Opened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suzaku gets closer to getting answers of his own. Lelouch and Nunnally, however, are a step ahead of him.

" _Only the forgotten are truly dead."_

__-Tess Gerritsen_ _

 

* * *

 

Suzaku had lost C.C.

The scene from the garden kept replaying in his head. Suzaku stood before Nunnally in her room now, both of them recovering from the shock of it all. Other still came and went through the building, always stopping to update him on something or give him a report. Other than those interruptions, he and Nunnally remained in silence. Nunnally was being oddly quiet, oddly… ruminating. He paced from her door to her wall. Glared at the lacy pink curtains of her window. Stared at the small painting of a garden, full of white daisies and pink carnations, along with a few others he couldn't quite name.

"I could feel him."

He turned to her. She sat on her bed, curled in a white nightgown as she stared at the softly carpeted floor. Her hair fell over her shoulders, hiding her face from view. "Nunnally?"

"I felt him," she said, and her voice was stronger now. "I know I did." She turned her gaze to Suzaku. She had that adult look again, the look that said she understood the world. That look reminded him so much of her brother. "Suzaku, I need your help with something."

He stiffened. She'd said his name? Why? "Nunnally, you can't–"

"I felt him, Suzaku." Tears pooled in her eyes. "His presence. Brother's. I felt it. Not C.C.'s. When that… whoever that was, that immortal, had shown up, I felt Brother's presence in that room."

Suzaku blinked. He couldn't breathe. It wasn't true, of course; he'd felt the sword dig into Lelouch's… but that was something else he didn't want to think about.

His chest seized, nonetheless. As if he __wanted__ it to be true. "That's impossible, Nunnally."

Her frown deepened. Those tears, though thick, did not fall. She opened her mouth. Closed it again. "I know." She turned away from him. It physically hurt to see her turn, even though he knew why – what, in that moment, he represented to her. Her brother's killer. "In any case, I felt two presences in there, but only one attacked us. The other may not be an ally, but they obviously don't mean us any harm."

His lips thinned. It was true that the other hadn't attacked him; he'd felt no danger, no warning from his Geass. C.C.? Had it been her? What was she doing? "Schneizel will be watching out for you from now on," he said, trying to turn the conversation from… from __him__. "I want you to always be vigilant. Keep that gun on you, just in case."

For a moment, she looked at him like any female teenager would – with annoyance. "Of course," she said, and she sounded like a princess. Prim.

He smiled. The room may have been pink and lacy, but Nunnally no longer was. It was almost sad. He could almost understand why Lelouch had so desperately tried to protect her. Sometimes he missed the old Nunnally and her easy smiles. "I know you'll be careful. I just worry."

"Zero! Sir!" Someone pounded on the door to Nunnally's room, then opened it before either of them could respond. Suzaku turned, grateful that he'd grown so accustomed to wearing the mask that he hadn't even realized it was still on. "We have a report from Commander Toudou." The man was young, probably no older than twenty-five. His hands were trembling slightly as he saluted. "He says he's found a potential victim of the…" He hesitated, then bulled on, keeping his gaze safely over Suzaku's shoulder. "The Immortal case. Sir. He's in the conference room."

Immortal case. Suzaku's lips thinned. Toudou had been by Lelouch's side for too long to not be able to put the pieces together. He knew of C.C., had probably linked the Geass to her. He also gave Suzaku strange looks. Looks that said he knew Suzaku's secret. It made Suzaku uncomfortable to be around him. But if he knew something about this case, if he could help Suzaku solve it, then he would take it. "All right. I'll meet with him. Continue the guard around Lady Nunnally."

"Sir!"

The young guard only seemed to relax when Suzaku was out in the hall and away from him. It made Suzaku's fists clench. Once again, he was carrying the weight that Lelouch had created. The mask alone did most of the work. He could be a robot, and he would command the same respect. Lelouch had managed to create fear, loyalty, discipline, and joy, and all he'd had to do was kill and be killed. It gave Charles' words a twisted sort of sense.

He took a deep breath. In the past year, he'd been able to live in a sort of haze. He'd carried out his work as the fake Zero, had helped set up the Earth Union, the peace treaty that called for diplomacy only, without fighting, in cases that created conflict between nations. Though, really, all he'd done was stand beside Nunnally as a silent sign that Japan and Britannia could finally coexist peacefully together. Another idea of Lelouch's.

That haze had left him now, and everything that happened around him pointed to that which he didn't want to remember. His once-friend. Lelouch. Just thinking the name hurt. He didn't want to think about the man who'd killed Euphemia, who'd killed Shirley and Shirley's father and countless others. He didn't want to think of the man who'd loved his sister, who'd befriended him when he'd begun schooling at the Academy, who'd laugh with him and him alone. He didn't want to think of the man who'd smiled as he'd told Suzaku that Suzaku could kill him. Didn't want to think of the day he'd accepted Zero's mask and the task he'd thought he'd wanted. The task he'd thought necessary, because they needed peace, and Lelouch wasn't the man he'd used to be, anyway; he wasn't a man who should be allowed to live.

He'd thought that, sincerely thought that, and now he was stuck with the blood of his friend on his hands. Forever stained on the mask he always had to wear.

His heart pounded thick and heavy in his chest. He ordered it to stop.

In the end, hadn't he chosen the fate of his friend, just as Lelouch had chosen his? Lelouch had demanded that Suzaku live, and now he had no choice but to do so. He'd demanded that Lelouch die, and so Lelouch had done so. Whether he himself had wanted it or not, it was Suzaku's own wish – Suzaku's 'Geass' – that had killed Lelouch.

No, he couldn't think like that. He couldn't think about how Lelouch had been right in his beliefs – how Lelouch truly had brought peace. Yes, it had been at a price, but wasn't that the same as what he'd done when he'd killed his father? Lelouch had chosen to hide Suzaku's truth from everyone. Lelouch had helped him hide the murder on his hands without once saying he should die. Not once. And yet he… he himself had said that…

He shook his head, ruining, for a moment, the perfect look of an unflappable Zero. No. No, no, no. He couldn't think about that. He couldn't.

These thoughts were why he’d shut himself in that foggy awareness. He'd known, when he'd calmed down during that month he'd spent alone, waiting to take over Lelouch's position as Zero, that he might have been wrong. Not completely, he quickly assured himself. But maybe… maybe just enough.

Just enough to think he might have been wrong… to kill Lelouch.

"Zero."

Startled, he rose his head. While he'd been thinking, his feet had moved him to the conference room. It spread far from the wide entranceway, looking large and empty with no one else inside. Toudou sat in the seat he usually took during conferences, directly to the left of where Suzaku – Zero – sat. Suzaku entered the room. "Toudou. You have a report for me."

Statements, not questions. Sometimes he hated the myriad of rules Lelouch had given him. Still, they worked. Toudou nodded and placed his hands on the table, steepling them. "That's right. I'd heard about the attack on you earlier in the evening." The man's gaze bore into Zero's mask, as if he were trying to see through it. Suzaku just barely kept from shifting under the cloak. "We saw a young woman while making our search through the abandoned subway tunnels. She had blood on her and seemed to have been injured, but there were no wounds."

Suzaku tensed. Seemed harmed but had no wounds. He thought of C.C., then dismissed it. Toudou would have named her if that was the case, right?

"I could have considered her existence in the tunnels a coincidence, but…" Toudou hesitated. His fingers clenched around each other. "I saw the green-haired girl, C.C., just before I found this woman." Suzaku jerked, then mentally cursed himself. He reacted too violently for Zero. "C.C. was running away from the scene of the girl when I heard the sounds of a struggle. When I went back, I saw only the girl, a young girl with white hair." Toudou pierced his gaze into Zero's mask again. "While on the way to the hospital, she, too, disappeared."

Suzaku's mind blanked. What? By Toudou's accounts, not only was there C.C., but also two others. Were all of them Immortals? Was there some sort of war going on between the remaining Immortals? Had Lelouch actually gotten rid of anything at all? Maybe he had. Maybe. Maybe he’d _tried_. Maybe he'd failed to kill the Immortals when he’d tried to kill all those with a Geass. Even Lelouch could make mistakes, right?

What was he supposed to do, then? Immortals couldn't be killed, could they? C.C. had said she'd wanted Lelouch to end her existence, but how exactly had Lelouch been expected to do it? Could only Geass users kill Immortals? He remembered Lelouch killing his father, who had become Immortal. How had Lelouch done it?

But maybe he was getting ahead of himself. Sure, if he found out how to kill them, he could. He'd never liked C.C., anyway, since the bitch had been the one responsible for Lelouch having the Geass in the first place. What he needed to know was why any of this would have anything to do with him. What had the invisible Immortal woman said? Something about revealing his secret. Why would a war between Immortals have anything to do with his secret? Unless it wasn't a war, and it was something else entirely. Were the Immortals somehow vested in what happened with Zero? Were they torn into two camps – those for the lie that was Zero, and those who were against?

"Zero?"

He just barely stopped himself from jerking again. Dammit. He'd been spacing out. "Fine," he said, trying to regain the look Lelouch had said was so important. "I'll take care of it."

Toudou stood as Suzaku made to leave. "Wait." Suzaku stood still, but didn't turn. Lelouch's words – never follow another's orders entirely. It took away too much of your power and gave it to them. God, he hated Lelouch's games. Even if they worked. He turned his gaze as much as he could without turning his head, and just barely made out Toudou as he rounded the conference table. "Do you know what that woman is doing back here?"

Toudou was tip-toeing, same as Suzaku. Somehow, that helped him relax. "No."

Toudou hesitated again. He clenched a hand around the edge of the table. Suzaku focused on remaining still. Undisturbed. "Does it have to do with your secrets?"

Secrets. Still tip-toeing, but making a bit more noise nonetheless. "No," Suzaku answered, not touching on the subject of his secrets. "It has nothing to do with me."

"Doesn't it?" the man said, his voice low. He at least saluted as Suzaku continued his exit. "I understand."

"Good. Make sure to inform me of Nagisa's condition when you learn of it."

Toudou jerked a bit in surprise. "Yes. Of course."

There. With Toudou a bit more off-center, Suzaku could leave without worrying that he'd been the weaker one in that conversation. Damn Lelouch for his slyness. In reality, he just wanted to know if Nagisa Chiba was going to be all right.

And he wanted to know what the hell was going on.

* * *

Kallen gazed out the window of her estate home. The garden was beautiful, perfectly tended to as usual, with lush green grass and flowers sitting cheerfully in their beds. Her gaze merely skimmed over the bursts of color; her attention was on the two people outside: the gardener, talking animatedly about something – probably flowers – and her mother, seated in her wheelchair with a small blanket in her lap to keep her warm.

She couldn't help but think of the man whose picture still sat on her bulletin board. It was still painful, if she thought about it too hard, to think about the boy she'd turned her back on. The Zero who had saved her, who had saved, in a way, her mother, who had saved the very world. She could have been a part of it, if only she had remained by his side. Would she have been the one he'd entrusted everything to, if she had stayed?

But she knew better. That role had never been for her.

She checked her watch and gasped. She was late for class! With one hand, she grabbed her backpack, and with the other she threw open the window. "Mom! I'm going to class now!"

Her mother looked up to her and shielded her eyes with one hand, then smiled and waved. Kallen waved back before rushing from her room. She had to hurry. It was bad enough that she often left or missed in order to help the new 'Zero.' The professor would have her head this time, she was sure.

On her way out of the room, she called a quick "see you later" to Lelouch's picture and grabbed the chain that held the key to her old Guren. Then she ran out the door and down the steps.

* * *

"Schneizel."

Lelouch locked the door behind him, amazed that it had been that easy. Even with the heightened security and the armed personnel, he'd been able to simply walk through when the soldiers switched the guard. Being invisible was like a free ticket to anywhere he wanted to go. Schneizel, too, had been easy to lure, pulling him momentarily from the hall, where he was patrolling, to Nunnally's room. Briefly he worried about the future of the world, if Suzaku was only using Schneizel to patrol the halls. Perhaps his morals were keeping him from using Schneizel as he should be used.

"Zero." Schneizel looked toward where Lelouch had spoken. Lelouch instinctively moved away from the gaze. "Your orders?"

Lelouch opened his mouth to speak, then stopped. He couldn't explain it, but suddenly he felt seen. He stilled.

"Brother."

His breath whooshed out of his lungs. In the corner of her room, hidden by the closet door, was Nunnally. She was looking at where he'd spoken, too, her eyes the clear crystal he remembered. He clutched his chest.

"Brother. You're alive? You're immortal?"

His hands shook. He'd been careless. Because everyone else had been so… he’d checked the bed, the chairs, the room itself. He simply hadn’t checked the closet. Why, after all, would she be there so late at night? Unless she’d been waiting. Hoping. He'd allowed himself to forget that his sister had sensed his presence in the garden. Or perhaps he'd wanted to forget. He backed away, back toward the door.

"Please don't leave, brother." She wheeled herself forward, her eyes now darting around the room. She cocked her head finally and closed her eyes. "I don't understand how you're immortal, but… I'm glad. I’m glad you’re alive." She bit her lip. "You – do you know what's going on? Why is Suzaku being attacked?"

He hesitated. His dear sister didn't seem to have a problem with him still being alive, but even if she wasn't being deceitful, it didn't change the fact that he couldn't exist in her world. Would she hesitate in her attempts at peace, knowing he was alive? Would her priorities change?

Of course they would. They already had. The fact that she was sitting in front of him without guards, asking questions, proved that. She should be concerned first and foremost with the defense of herself and of Zero, and certainly shouldn't be naming Suzaku – though how she knew was beyond him. Had she deduced it on her own? Had Suzaku felt morally obligated to tell her, or had she stubbornly demanded to know?

It didn't matter. She should have at least been concerned with the safety and security of the world and its people, yet here she was, letting it all go for the chance to speak with him. And God, how he wanted to speak with her. How he wanted to lay down the burden he still carried and revel in the victory he'd achieved. How he desperately, desperately wanted to __live__.

No. He'd given it all up. Gladly. So that Nunnally and Suzaku and all of his friends could live in a peace that would give them – and all future people – happiness. He just had to remember that. He would have to order Schneizel later.

He reached out to unlock the door. He told himself not to look back, but of course he did. He froze. Her bottom lip was trembling. Dammit. Dammit! He sucked in a breath. "Lelouch vi Britannia is dead," he said, and wanted to curse.

He saw her bite her lip again. She opened those big blue eyes of hers and looked straight at where he stood. Her breaths came in short gasps that left the white blouse she wore quivering. "And Lelouch Lamperouge?" she asked.

He had to close his eyes.

"He's dead, too."

He could hear her fighting against tears, but he couldn't help her through it. He unlocked the door and opened it.

"No – no, I don't care!" she said. He turned. She was wheeling herself forward again, one hand out to him. It reminded him of their parting aboard the Damocles. He gritted his teeth. "I – no matter what, you're my brother and I love you!"

He froze. She curled her thin fingers into a fist and pressed it to her chest. Though her gaze was a few inches to his right and almost half a foot too low, the fire in them couldn't be mistaken. "I love you, brother. And I trust you."

She loved and trusted him? Last he'd heard, she'd been willing to kill him. To her, he was evil. He had started a war, founded a rebellion, and taken over Britannia. He had killed hundreds, if not thousands. He'd killed Shirley. Her dear Euphemia.

Well, she wasn't the only one who hated him for that.

"Schneizel," he said.

"Zero."

Lelouch turned away to face the door. It was plain white, simple yet feminine, with a gilded gold handle. He touched it, wondering if they would think to search for fingerprints. He wiped it clean and pulled out thin satin gloves from his pocket. "Around the East corner of Babylon is a Jester. Meet me by his side." Once the gloves were on, he turned the handle. "And make sure you're alone – not even I can go with you. Speak to no one about this, not even me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

He knew the man was bowing, knew it by the rustling of clothing and the unsettling feeling that always meshed with the triumph he felt. He'd finally beaten his brother, and at the most important game. That gave him triumph. He'd turned his brother into a slave, a mindless doll. That made his shoulders itch.

It was the price of a new world. He’d known it from the start. He would become a monster, because he would do monstrous things. He would become a demon, because he would torment the living. And the world would forever hate him. Even Suzaku.

But he was glad, immensely glad, that his little sister still loved him.

"Distract the guards, Schneizel," he ordered at last, and left the room. Schneizel stood and left, as well, shouting for the guards near Nunnally's room to get the rest and head to the conference room. As everyone rushed to do what Zero's personal servant asked of them, Lelouch walked right out the front door.

* * *

"Nunnally!"

She turned, hoping she'd managed to wipe away all traces of the tears she'd shed. Suzaku, clothed in Zero's garments, as always, ran to her side. The soldiers all parted for him, though none were officially under his command. "Nunnally, are you all right?"

She smiled. Suzaku was acting very unlike Zero, but that would only influence people more. When they saw how important she was to Zero, they would believe her invaluable to peace, as well. Surely, she thought, that had also been part of her brother's plan.

Had he also planned to live forever, and to never tell her?

"I'm all right, Zero," she said. The words seemed to remind Suzaku of the costume he wore, and he stood straight, his hands quickly folding back beneath the cape. She watched him dismiss the soldiers from the room. She knew without doubt that her brother hadn't told Suzaku. He'd probably told no one. It would ruin the point of him dying, wouldn't it?

Maybe, at some point, she would be jealous of C.C.'s obvious place by her brother's side all this time. But for now, all she could feel was thankful. Her brother was alive. She hadn't lost him. Anything else could be worked out.

She had seen his heart, after all. She knew exactly what Lelouch had felt, had thought, in those last moments of his life. In the moment she’d held his hand, she’d known him again. Even if Suzaku wanted to pretend it wasn’t true, she knew in her heart that her brother had hurt himself every time he'd hurt someone else. Her brother was kind.

Her brother was alive.

"Zero," she said, just as the silence between the two of them stretched a bit too thin. "Babylon. Does that ring any bells for you?"

"Babylon?" Suzaku started to tilt his head, then recognized how stupid Zero would look and stopped. "Where did that come from?"

Nunnally shrugged. She didn't like the idea of lying to Suzaku, but how could she possibly tell him that she'd met her brother, an Immortal? She knew very well that Suzaku believed Lelouch should have died. That, too, had been in her brother's memories that day. So she said, "It's a riddle. 'Around the East corner of Babylon is a Jester.' Do you have any idea what it could be?"

Suzaku's silence told her everything long before Suzaku actually spoke. "I'm sorry, Nunnally. I don't. Babylon's supposed to be a perfect place, right? And it fell due to human pride." He leaned down to be level with her. "Where did you hear the riddle? Are you able to get the answer somewhere?"

She smiled. Suzaku was a good person with a kind heart. Perhaps too kind to understand her brother and the kind of love he showed. "I could," she said, knowing it wasn't the truth, "but then the answer wouldn't be worth receiving, would it?"

Suzaku made a small sound, and she could imagine him smiling behind the mask. But then he said, "you sound just like your brother," and she wasn't sure what face he was making anymore.

* * *

Lelouch was just leaving the Hanasono Jinjya Shrine – a shrine which stood on an old garden, one whose name meant "Flower Garden," and just happened to have kitsune shrines all around its borders – when C.C. gave him a call.

"This is annoying," she said, and her huff of exasperation turned into a hiss of static on his end.

He finished descending the stairs to the shrine and slid out onto the sidewalk, passing straight into the city streets, turning anonymous as he traveled, baseball cap on his head and sunglasses over his eyes, toward the ghetto blocks a district south of his location. What he wanted would be most easily obtained illegally. "How many messages have you found?"

"About two dozen, though I think there's still a couple more. I'll sniff them out. What are you going to do?"

Lelouch's lips thinned. D.D. had returned to her old game, likely simply to mock him for being unable to stop her. She would have left several messages, but he could always use that data, as well. She wouldn’t travel far from where she needed to go next. Hence why his steps took him down the streets toward the embassy.

Even here, so close to the heart of the Britannian embassy and the UFN, he could walk in his homeless outfit and go practically unseen. People passed him without giving him a second glance, simply continuing on without thought to those around them. It was amazing how unwilling people were to engage their brains. "I made the mistake of jumping rashly into this situation simply because of emotional concerns. Do not doubt that I won't make the same mistake again."

C.C. made a short sound of amusement. "Of course."

Lelouch frowned. "Silence, witch." Another snort, which he decided to ignore. "I'm off to get what I need. You just concentrate on keeping our secrets secret."

"You owe me."

"Pizza," he said, and with a more pleased sound this time, she got off the line. He smiled down at the phone. Really, the woman was incomprehensible.

The city streets were perfectly maintained for another few blocks, and then a few loose chunks could be found. The streets were almost deserted despite the midday lunch rush. With an almost stale scent, the wind whistled down the dark alleys. Lelouch waited a moment, considering his options. Letting someone attack him seemed the easiest solution, especially since he could survive anything and could force the offender to pass out – so long as he remembered what C.C. had told him, to feel the infinity inside of himself and will it into another's mind. But that wouldn't do. The faster he could put his plan into motion, the sooner he could stop D.D. from ruining his hard work.

"You."

Lelouch turned to the voice and grinned. There stood a man who fit the profile of any scum dealer in the world. This model was a Japanese man, hair buzzed off and gangly arms crossed, his vest leaving his chest exposed. Black lines criss-crossed his skin. "Hello."

The man stopped showing off the knife at his belt and leaned against one of the city buildings. When before Lelouch had passed skyscrapers, now the buildings stood no more than five stories tall, their infrastructure fine but their appearances shot. The man tilted his head in a sort of nod. "Then you were looking for me?"

"I was." Lelouch turned to the man and held out a hand. "I need your help obtaining a few things."

"Oh?" The man took a step out. "Perhaps you should be a bit more specific."

"Beakers."

The man gave a double take. "What?"

Lelouch smiled. "Beakers, please. And a few other things, if you don't mind."

* * *

The unrest in the building had finally settled, and Schneizel had returned from wherever he had fled. Suzaku had attempted to ask the man where he'd gone, but all he would say was that he'd followed Zero's orders. Finally Suzaku gave up. The man may have followed an enemy, perhaps the Immortal girl. But if that was the case, then she had returned, not for Suzaku, as he'd originally assumed, but for Nunnally.

What Suzaku needed was to find C.C. If he could just pin the witch down and find out what she was doing, what was happening around him, then he would be able to fight back and protect Nunnally and this precarious peace.

"Zero. Sir." Suzaku turned from the window in his room. He didn't speak, merely acknowledged the man by turning in his direction. It was all the man needed. "Lady Kaguya has arrived. Lord Xingke seems to be recovering, so Empress Tianzi will also be able to attend the meeting she’s asking for.”

Tianzi and Kaguya both? Suzaku stiffened beneath Zero's cape. "Why tell me?" he asked. "Lady Nunnally is the one to whom you should speak."

But the man would not be swayed. "She wishes to speak to you personally, sir." He hesitated, but looked into Zero's mask and continued. "She has heard of some of the, uh, 'commotion' here and wants to know what's happening in Japan."

"A valid concern," Nunnally said, wheeling herself in front of Zero's door. Suzaku didn't turn his body to her, but he did turn his gaze. The act was unnecessary this time, however. The guard swiveled around to face Nunnally and forgot, for a moment, about Zero's existence behind him. As it should be. "I'll speak with them. Of course, Zero may accompany me."

Zero took his cue then and moved to her side, grabbing the handles of her wheelchair. It was completely symbolic, but the idea of revolution taking a back seat to Nunnally's democratic authority made most silent. The guard fell quiet as they left, Nunnally almost leaning forward in her seat in her eagerness to arrive.

The ride was short and unbroken by words. Outside the conference room stood Lady Kaguya, a once devout follower of Zero who now watched him warily, and Tianzi, who exchanged an excited wave with Nunnally. "Tianzi. How is Xingke?" Nunnally asked once they were near enough for normal speech.

"He's better," she said, but for a moment, her smile wobbled. Because better was all he could be now, and soon he would be nothing at all. Dead. But she smiled. "Kaguya told me we have other problems. Someone's attacked a couple of times now, right?"

"Yes, but don't worry," Nunnally said, leading the two of them inside. "I won't let anything happen to you. Kaguya, either, of course."

Kaguya nodded, her gaze flickering to Zero again before she looked stolidly away. "Do you know who it is?"

"We're investigating," Nunnally said. Suzaku saw Kaguya's lips pinch.

"I heard it may be remnants of Lelouch vi Britannia's old faction," she said. Suzaku nearly nodded. It was close enough to the truth – C.C. had been Lelouch's ally, and he had fought the Immortals.

"No," Nunnally said, her voice echoing off the walls of the room. Lady Kaguya stopped short, her mouth open to continue but no words emerging. "This has nothing to do with my late brother," Nunnally spoke, and Suzaku stiffened. Never before had Nunnally brought up her relation to Lelouch in these meetings. He looked down at her, but he could only see the top of her head and her clenched fists, small on top of the armrests of her wheelchair. "These people attacking us are attacking our peace. They aim at myself and Zero. They may eventually turn to the two of you." She gestured to both Tianzi and Kaguya. When Kaguya grimaced, Tianzi held her hands to her lips. "I will not let them harm any of us. This peace we've achieved is too precious to leave unprotected. But this does not mean that they are old allies of Lelouch's. At the end of everything, he had no friends." Her hands were shaking now. "He was alone."

Kaguya looked away. Suzaku held on to the handles of the wheelchair through will alone. The pain in Nunnally's voice matched the fire building in his own chest.

Nunnally let the silence ring for a few moments, until no one was looking at her anymore. "Therefore," she said quietly, "we must assume that these people are working for themselves. I'm sure both of you in this room know what 'Geass' is." Kaguya's head snapped up. "We know these people are those with Geass origins. Why they are attacking us is unverified, as are their identities and whereabouts. I can tell you that the citizens living here in this city are under no visible threat, but I ask for caution from both of you."

Caution. Lady Kaguya and Tianzi both took the word as one might a death sentence. "His legacy lives, then," Kaguya muttered, and Nunnally stiffened. Suzaku reached around and squeezed her shoulder. After a tense moment, she reached up and lightly squeezed back.

"Once I have news, I will share it with you immediately," Nunnally said. "You are both welcome to stay here. We'll offer you protection. But if you feel you must be somewhere else, I simply ask that you be careful."

Kaguya stood. "I understand," she said. The small jewel on her headdress bounced as she pushed in her chair. "I must speak with my Knights about this. I'm sure their protection will be best for me." Again, Kaguya sent Suzaku a withering glare. "Tianzi, you're welcome to join me." She turned and took young Tianzi's hands, but the girl shook her head.

"I'm staying here with Xingke," she said. "Nunnally and Zero will take care of me."

Kaguya visibly stiffened, but she smiled back and exchanged a few pleasantries with the girl before making a rather grand exit, her skirt flowing behind her as she left. The door slammed slightly behind her.

Tianzi looked up the table to Nunnally. "Are you okay?" she asked.

The words made Nunnally smile. "I am." She wheeled herself over to the girl, leaving Suzaku behind to watch. She, too, took Tianzi's hands, and for a moment, Suzaku saw her close her eyes. Back when she'd been blind, she'd used the tension or dampness or trembling in a hand to tell how the person was feeling, since she couldn't see their face. She opened her eyes and curled her fingers around Tianzi's palms. "Everything will be all right," she said, and Tianzi smiled back, her lips a bit tremulous.

The friendship between these girls could save the world. Three young females with ideals and hopes and experiences that hadn't broken them. They were the ones needed to guide this world on its correct path, not bitter men like himself.

He stayed in the background as Nunnally and Tianzi spoke, each giggling suddenly at a joke Suzaku had chosen not to hear. But through the double doors of the conference room, beyond the walls of their home, Suzaku knew there was someone waiting. Waiting to show the truth of what had happened that day over a year ago. Someone who wanted to ruin the chance for something better. Someone who didn't understand that truth was not something the world needed.

He eventually led Nunnally back to her room, where she waved goodbye to him and refused to talk about her outburst in the conference room. Then he went back to his own room, with the door still being repaired and full rest therefore impossible. He had just sat on the bed when a spot of green had him shooting back to his feet.

In the corner of the room, almost hidden by the closet door, suddenly slightly ajar, was the green-haired witch. She had the audacity to grin. "Hello, idiot."


	6. A Coming Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kallen and D.D. make their moves.

Kallen strode from the campus grounds with barely constrained urgency. Kids – students, she corrected herself, though she couldn't believe the very thought – were playing Frisbee, talking on their phones about food or boys or something else ridiculous, and all the while something was happening to those leading their governments. Something that was so big that it had gotten Kaguya into a tiff and had thus led to Kallen, of all people, being summoned. Kallen, who had been told to have a normal life. Kallen, who could never have a normal life.

So she ignored the few students who recognized her and raced across campus, ignored the slight breeze that made the trees sway a soft hymn of a song, ignored the glaring sun that burned the sidewalk white. Something big enough to break Kaguya from her trance-like state of living, where she sat between fear of Zero and the loss of faith she'd endured. Something big enough to disturb the bubble Nunnally and Zero had created around themselves, where all they touched, they touched through glass, showing their faces only to demand the world continue on its path. The path Lelouch had made when he'd decided to make Zero more than himself, more than anyone.

How she'd begged for a chance to see the world run amok once more, simply so that she could move, get involved, stand on the right side instead of facing off against the one person willing to give everything for those around him. She wouldn't be stagnant again. She wouldn't stand in the way again. She would move forward, in the right direction, for the right purpose.

She would move the world ahead, on the design that he had created – the one she'd once had faith in.

She would _move._

* * *

Suzaku glared across the room, his entire body frozen, unable to choose whether to strike or stand his ground. C.C. simply watched him, arms crossed, grin safely in place. "Long time no see."

"Not so long. You were here yesterday." His voice sounded like Zero's. Like Lelouch's. He supposed that was why, for an instant, her smile froze and faltered. Then she shrugged.

"Semantics. In any case, you didn't see me." She stepped forward. He pulled out his gun. She only laughed. "I do apologize for that. We were a bit busy catching someone."

We. So there __had__ been two of them there. Nunnally had been right. "But you failed. It was the white-haired woman, right? You're fighting her."

The woman had the audacity to look surprised. "Well. I guess even someone like you can figure something out if he puts his mind to it."

Suzaku's hand clenched around the butt of his gun. He wanted to kill this woman. This woman who was responsible for Lelouch's descent into madness. Who was responsible for everything that had happened. She was the one responsible for Lelouch's death, just as if she had held the sword herself. "Why are you back now, C.C.?"

She walked calmly into the room. And why shouldn't she? He had no way of knowing how to end her immortal existence. His gun would only slow her down. "Are you not glad to see me? We could hang out together. Reminisce."

He flinched. Only slightly, but he knew she'd seen it. Those eyes of hers narrowed. "No. But we can catch up with each other – see what we’ve each been doing for the past year." Her lips shifted slightly, an old sign he recognized from a year ago from the short moments he and Lelouch had gotten to fighting. He remembered that very smirk when he'd called Lelouch an overly dramatic beanpole. It was one that said she was delightfully surprised with him.

"I know what you've been doing," she said, and draped herself over his sofa – still needing a few patches from the last fight in this very room – as if she hadn't a care in the world. The rage in him was warring now with something else, something more painful and infinitely more dangerous. It made him feel like there should be a third person in the room. The thought hardened him once more.

"Is you partner here?"

She rose a delicate little eyebrow, and her grin slipped. "No. My partner is momentarily unaware of my whereabouts. He wishes for us to leave you in the dark. I believe that to be imprudent." At Suzaku's beat of silence, she said, "that means unadvised."

He glared at her, though she couldn't see it past the mask. "I know what it means," he said, then realized he had fallen for her bait when she smirked. He considered cursing. "Then you came to, what? Help?"

That smirk widened. She leaned her head back, showing off her neck. His finger itched on the trigger. Her hair, when swathed around the red cushions of the couch, seemed almost to shimmer like crystal. He considered shooting it. "The woman you met is D.D. An Immortal, like me. I had owed a small obligation to her, so I kept her existence from Lelouch."

She said it like the betrayal meant nothing, and to her, it probably was. Someone like her was likely used to betraying those around her, just as, under her influence, Lelouch had learned to be.

For some reason, however, the words calmed Suzaku. Like a cool breeze, he found himself nearly leaning into them. Of course Lelouch wouldn't have let the woman live if he’d known. He'd admitted to the evils of Geass himself. Suzaku remembered Lelouch looking down at his own hand as they rested in his room, Lelouch bent over on the dark blue couch and Suzaku standing by the door. C.C. had gone to do some menial task that Lelouch had given her simply to get the two of them alone, and he had said, his body clenching, his long fingers tense, that Geass should never exist upon this planet.

The memory gripped Suzaku so tightly, beat into him in the instant C.C. had absolved Lelouch of the guilt of not knowing of the immortal woman's existence, that he nearly stumbled. A fierce want shook him, the desire to see Lelouch before him on that horrible couch, plotting some insane scheme that would work perfectly, something grand and dramatic that would take the woman from the earth. He wanted to see that furrow on his brow that showed Lelouch planning moves far in the future and dissecting them, the thinning of his lips that spoke of his determination, until that light would enter those violet eyes, the light that spoke of triumph. He wanted it so suddenly and so fiercely his breath caught in his throat.

And on the heels of that was the knowledge that the only person before him was the one who had known Lelouch far more intimately than Suzaku ever had, who had seemed to understand everything Lelouch thought before those features ever altered, the one who had been an enigmatic ally, silent and steady, by Lelouch's side, and the envy of it made Suzaku sick.

His body nearly rejected him. He needed to raise his other hand simply to hold his gun steady, his arm trembling, his mind flashing on more memories than he wanted. His Geass suddenly shouted at him to step away from her. Without any consent from his mind, his body did as the Geass ordered. "What are you doing?" he asked, his voice a whip even as he battled for balance.

She tilted her head and frowned. "Doing?" She seemed to only then notice the state he was in and stood. "I'm not doing anything." She looked down at her chest as if it were about to burst open. "But you're right; something's happening."

"So stop it," he hissed, and took another step back.

She backed away, too, and frowned. "This is new," she said, her voice nearly curious. Suzaku, for his part, simply tried to make Zero look a little less terrified. "Well. In any case. You know to keep your secret secret, don't you? You do understand that's what she's after, right?"

He tried to snarl at her, but the best he could do was a choked noise. It didn't sound intimidating. "Of course," he gritted out.

"Great. Then all that's left is to give you this." She held up a small, pink origami crane and smiled thin-lipped at him before setting it on the couch. "I will be in touch again later."

He didn't want her to go. He realized it the moment he snapped a quick "wait!" before she could do more than flicker in his eyesight. She rose that eyebrow of hers again. The memories were beginning to fade, and Suzaku could finally catch a breath. "Whatever you want to tell me, tell me now."

She cocked her head. After a moment of consideration, she touched her chest and sighed. "Do you feel it anymore?" When he lowered his gun, she nodded. "It was as if you were reaching for eternity."

He didn't bother asking her what she meant, simply because he knew her riddles would only stack on top of one another until he was frustrated and snappish. More frustrated and snappish. "You came for more than to leave me that thing." He motioned his gun toward the crane, momentarily forgetting Lelouch's orders for minimalistic movement.

"I did." She dared step closer. His Geass didn't act up, and she took another. "You will need to provide a boat, several – and I mean several – pounds of explosives, and your presence. Do try to keep the Black Knights away," she said.

"A boat? Explosives? Where?" Then he scowled. "Why?"

She backed away, and just as she did, the Geass told him to once again do the same. He did, nearly tripping over the ridiculous cape before the memories could assault him again. "I already gave you the crane," she said, as if the gift had somehow put her out. "You want more?"

Details would have been nice, but she had already disappeared. He considered calling for his guards, but they had hardly seemed to be able to stop the invisible immortals before. He let it go, though he did open his door and hiss a quick, "get out," to the air in his room. He thought he heard a giggle. He left the door open for a few minutes, long enough for a guard to ask if he needed anything, and then he closed it again.

Only then did he realize that, if C.C. hadn't informed Lelouch of the one immortal due to some allegiance, then the question of why her immortal partner lived was still unanswered.

* * *

Chiba watched Toudou as he sat before her, his eyes far away as he contemplated something she couldn’t see. Her heart lurched as his eyes flickered, his fingers tightening against one another as he stared over their steepled forms. She recognized a look she hadn't seen since Toudou turned from Zero. It was a decision he now said shamed him, though she couldn't understand why. He'd been right to turn from Lelouch. That murderer. Psycho. Tyrant. But she didn't bother trying to say so anymore. Toudou would not budge on the idea that he'd turned from Lelouch like a samurai might his daimyo.

Now that look had returned, and she knew it was because of Zero. She looked down to the bedding, the stark white sheets wrapped coolly around her, though she was minimally injured from being harmed by the white-haired woman as she escaped. She could release herself, but Toudou had told her that he would need her as strong and rested as possible. To catch C.C., or to catch the white-haired woman? Or was it something else entirely that brought that burning look to Toudou’s eyes?

She spent a few minutes looking at the room. The hospital was near Lady Nunnally's estate and housed another of Toudou's men, a new face named Paol, who had also been hurt.

Both of them had already been visited by Lady Nunnally, who had looked the two of them over and asked them quiet questions about their health. The young girl was nearly a waif, thin and soft-fingered. An aristocrat through and through. Her wide eyes, however, seemed large not for innocence, but in order to see more of the world than others.

She had seemed almost preoccupied as she spoke, thanking Chiba for her efforts. Now that Chiba thought on it longer, she could swear young Nunnally had been considering something the way Toudou now was, his own contemplation brought into stunning clarity by the horrid fluorescent lighting.

Finally his face cleared enough for him to look down at her, but the meditation hadn't left them. He was considering her part in the next step.

"I'm with you," she said, her voice soft. She saw his eyes clench for a moment before he nodded and stood. His eyes strayed back to her for a short instant, and she was immediately gratified. No matter how important his place was, he still searched for her at his side. That was enough.

"Rest," he said quietly, and turned from her. On a mission once again. To Zero? Because of Zero? She kept the question to herself. Toudou seemed ready to make another choice of loyalties, and it would not be her place to stand in the way of his decision. Her own would be the same, no matter what he chose. Always, she would carry her vow. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less.

* * *

"Ah, Kallen. You've arrived." Lady Kaguya turned as Kallen burst into the room, the doors banging loudly against the walls. Kallen had grown a bit taller, leaving Kaguya to look even younger by comparison. When Kallen stopped to stand just before Kaguya, she almost seemed to dwarf the young girl.

"What's happened?" she asked, ignoring the welcoming banter being thrown at her. Shinichiro, in particular, seemed hellbent on being heard, waving his arms and cheering.

The room was large, but still carried the same feel of that first house they'd stayed in when they had first joined Zero. The symbol he'd given them was displayed on flags on all four walls, the table the same dark mahogany of the banisters from the original house. She stood straighter than before, as if the room itself were a part of his presence, and thought once again how sad it was that they had all been so altered, yet none ever accepted.

"Zero and Lady Nunnally have both been attacked by someone with Geass."

That brought the banter in the room to a screeching halt, and Kallen's eyes widened. "But that's impossible," she said. Her fingers tightened around one another behind her back. She felt the key to her old Guren like a dead weight on her chest. "How could that be?"

Kaguya's eyes narrowed, and suddenly Kallen didn't want to hear what the girl had to say. She bit her lip to keep from interrupting. "Though I do not share the opinion that Zero's presence is a positive one, the people love him." Kallen's heart bounced in her chest at the words; her lip turned numb from the pressure of her teeth. "And Lady Nunnally is a good leader. If nothing else, we must protect her. Empress Tianzi has chosen to stay at Lady Nunnally's home with her. We have two jobs to do here." She looked at the Knights before her, each moving easily into position. "We must protect those within the estate's walls and put an end to these Geass users once and for all."

There were cheers, catcalls, and Shinichiro shouting, "yeah! I'll take them all on! All of you newbies who weren't there for the war can hide behind me." That brought on a few angry retorts that Shinichiro argued over.

Toudou entered the room then, turning the angry shouts to nothing more than strained silences. Shinichiro punched a new guy, Jae's, arm. Jae glared.

"Toudou!" Kaguya said, and nearly bounced where she stood until Toudou finally stood beside her. "This is an unexpected surprise. You usually do not come to these meetings anymore."

Toudou looked over to Kallen. She stiffened under his gaze, unsure whether to be envious of his place beside Zero or put off by the look he was giving her now. "I can give you information on the new Geass user," he said, his voice nearly monotonous.

She beamed up at him. "Will you be returning to us, then?"

Toudou was already shaking his head. Her smile dimmed somewhat. "No. My place remains by Zero's side." The words made Kallen lean forward, nearly into Kaguya's space. She wanted to speak them, as well. She just didn't know that she would be welcome. The man under the mask was not one she thought would welcome her, nor did she owe her allegiance to him.

Toudou's eyes met hers once more. Her heart began thundering in her ribs, beating against her key. "But I will give you this help, in the hopes that you will assist Zero when the time comes."

Kaguya's happiness dimmed to nothing, like a spark had gone out. "You wish for me to help Zero."

"Zero is not Lelouch," Toudou said, though something flickered in his eyes as he spoke. Kallen knew without doubt in that instant that Toudou knew Zero's secret, too, and stood by his side. She remembered Toudou having been Suzaku's mentor before the war and wondered if the man had taken that position once again. She wanted to do the same – to stand as Zero's guardian. Her rightful place. "He is a symbol of justice. He, too, is conferring with others on how to rid this country of the Geass threat."

He said no more, and Kaguya went silent. The little girl's body shook. She studied the table before her.

"I'll do it!" Shinichiro said. "Zero saved us! He's the hero of Japan, and he's my buddy. I'll always have his back."

Other members of the Knights looked at one another. The older members recognized Zero as synonymous with Lelouch, but the world did not. Dear Shinichiro had gotten to the heart of the matter, though he probably had no clue of it.

"As will I," Kallen said, though she did not move from her position. From the corner of her eye, she saw Kaguya look up at her. "Zero has always been the symbol of light in the darkness. He is justice and equality itself, and he appointed me as his guardian long ago. Where he stands, I stand." She turned to Lady Kaguya. "There is more than just names," she said, softer now, as other voices slowly chimed in. "We have peace, when before we faced nothing but an honorable death. He gave us life, and hope, and our futures."

Kaguya did not seem to agree, but more voices were calling out, until the room rang with the constant shouting of, "I'll go!" and "For the UFN!"

Finally she sighed, dropped her head for a moment, and nodded. When she looked back up at Toudou, the grin was gone, and only the leader of the nations remained. "We accept this, and I pledge to you our support of Zero against our enemy."

Toudou nodded. Kallen tried to catch his eye once more, but it seemed that time had passed. "The enemy is small looking and seems harmless. Her hair is white, though she appears to be in her early twenties at oldest. She has a petite build, yet she can fight with a strength greater than any man." When Shinichiro snorted, Toudou said, "she threw Nagisa against a nearby building before turning to Paol and breaking his arm between her hands."

Shinichiro’s jaw dropped.

"How is that possible?" Kaguya asked, her voice quiet, yet resonating. "Is she like the woman who once stood beside Emperor Lelouch?"

Kallen didn't know how to respond to the myriad of emotions those words stirred up. They calmed enough for her to name the dominant trait when Toudou said, "yes, I believe so. It also seems that C.C. is fighting this woman."

Jealousy.

It was a strange, unwelcome feeling. Kallen wasn't sure if it was brought on by knowing that woman had stood by Lelouch to the end, or if it was knowing that the woman was getting first crack at the bitch who was trying to tear down Lelouch's last masterpiece.

She reached up and touched the key to her Guren. "I want to fight, as well," Kallen said. All eyes turned to her. Kaguya stood silent, almost mournful, but Kallen didn't feel the slightest bit of loss. Trying to live a normal life never would have worked for her. Fighting, defending. Protecting. That was where her heart led. "I want to stop this girl."

Toudou nodded. "We are going to search for her," he said. "I know her last location, and Xingke may have an idea as to how to track her."

Kallen nodded. "Then we'll go." It would be better if those who knew Lelouch's secrets were the ones who got close to C.C. "Everyone else should protect Lady Nunnally, Empress Tianzi, and Lady Kaguya."

Shinichiro slammed both hands on the table, making it shake. "I want to fight, too!"

Others voiced their agreements, and Kallen wished Ohgi weren't busy with Vi and his baby. She quickly regretted the thought. All Ohgi had ever wanted was a family and a peaceful life. Now that he finally had them both, how could she begrudge him his happiness?

Someone started shouting at someone else, two newbies who had yet to test themselves in battle, each laying claim to being stronger than the other. One of them threw a punch, and suddenly the entire room was cheering and jeering. She thought maybe she could begrudge anyone a little bit of anything if it meant stopping the growing headache from spreading.

Toudou cleared his throat and glared shortly around the room. A few older members actually dropped their heads in shame. "We need some of our best to protect our leaders. Without them, any fighting would be for nothing."

Kallen had to bite her lip again to keep from laughing when Shinichiro's eyes lit up. "Well, I understand that you would consider me one of the best. Of course I am! I was with Zero from the beginning!" He threw his head back and laughed. Several others laughed, as well, but their faces said it was more at than with. It all seemed to strengthen their resolves, however. No one put up further protest.

Kaguya kept her eyes on the table.

Kallen placed one hand on her shoulder, until Kaguya turned her big eyes upward. "We will protect this peace," she said, and Kaguya nodded. The young woman didn't apologize for calling Kallen in. It would be useless; she'd felt she'd needed to do so. And Kallen didn't want the apology. For the first time in a long while, she felt as if she was walking on the right path again.

She turned to Toudou. "Shall we?"

Toudou bowed and led the way out.

* * *

"No, you don't get this." Lelouch held the pizza away from her as he stomped over to the abandoned apartment building's kitchen countertop and dropped the delicious-smelling box. Then he turned that glare of his back on her. "I told you to leave him out of this."

The kitchen had seen several better days. The countertops and floors all had little black things on them that Lelouch guessed had more to do with the new residents than dust or grime. The only thing in the room was what looked to be a cardboard box, which some enterprising soul had turned into a trash can of sorts and which smelled of things so far rotten they'd returned somewhat to soil. Someone must have decided to camp out within these four walls before they had, but had left some time ago. Lelouch wondered idly what the bathroom looked like.

C.C. eyed the pizza like one might the Holy Grail. He stepped in front of it, blocking her eyesight. She glared. "He's already involved, Lelouch. You can't stop that. What you _can_ do, however, is explain these horrid living conditions."

"I need to wait for my contact to find the things I've requested, and no one searches very hard through this neighborhood." She didn't even seem to be listening to him; her attention seemed trapped on whether it was worth the effort of getting up and making some sort of lunge for her pizza. He took it and dumped it in the trash. C.C. gave an incoherent cry of protest, one hand reaching imploringly for the food.

Then she sat back, crossed her arms, and sulked.

Lelouch sighed. It wasn't as if he didn't understand where she was coming from. Technically – normally – one would gain alliances with those who were enemies with their enemies. It was conventional, so much so that there was a phrase for it. A phrase that had even originated in a treatise advising war councils.

But nothing about this situation was conventional, and if he wanted any chance of not being hunted down by his ex-friend when all of this was over – or, knowing Suzaku, before anything was even remotely over, and while the surprised rage was still building inside the idiot jock’s chest – then he had to play his cards just right. C.C. had given away the information that there was another immortal on her side, the witch, and had even let it slip that the immortal was a man. Lelouch had no doubt that Suzaku couldn't possibly begin to put the pieces together (Suzaku’s level of denial was extreme), but he couldn't be certain the man wouldn't go on a full-on hunt for C.C. and her unknown partner.

Which of course would get complicated by the fact that Nunnally already knew who the partner was. If Lelouch didn't want her suspicious actions to alert Suzaku enough that even he may potentially (if a miracle occurred) put together the clues, then he was going to need to keep all of his little ducks in a row.

His most irritating little duck was staring petulantly at the pizza sliding inexorably down into the pile of rot. He snagged it before it could go too far, even though the thought of touching it now made his fingers itch. C.C., however, perked up at once. "Suzaku's involvement will destroy this."

"You needed to be able to get into the World of C. You only said we would head to the Middle East to keep D.D. from finding out you really intend to return to the island, sure. Getting in there isn’t going to be as simple as wanting it to happen, though."

Lelouch grimaced. Of course it was true that going to the nearest entrance would be optimal, which meant it was his true plan. He’d known she would know that from the start. He’d also known he would need some plan for getting inside. His initial goal had been to steal a Knightmare Frame. Of course it would be easier if he had better resources, but to get Suzaku to help them with it… "If he finds out about me…"

C.C. gave him a familiar look. "You were the one who chose to show yourself to Nunnally." Lelouch gritted his teeth. "That boy couldn't put any of it together alone. But with her help…"

Again, true. If he hadn't let himself be lax in his espionage – or, more honestly, if he'd had the willpower to not meet with Nunnally one last time – then half of the problem wouldn't exist. But that moment had come and gone, as had C.C.'s. There was nothing left but to move forward.

He sighed, and C.C. took the chance to come open the box and see what was salvageable. She made a happy noise at whatever she found. Lelouch left the kitchen and headed through the connected living room. A hall led to the two bedroom and the bathroom; each room was likely just as bad as the two he’d already seen.

This place was scheduled for clean-up via the city’s taxes, thanks to the Black Knights’ efforts. In a month, someone would be by to start renovating. Which meant that in a week or two, pest control would be in to clear the place of its infestation. They would have to be gone by then. Lelouch opened the door to leave the apartment, then turned invisible and headed outside the building itself.

There were still people milling around, but that was because darkness was coming to a neighborhood that catered to the night. No one paid attention to the door opening and closing on its own. They ignored evidence of the unreal. People, willingly blind, worried only about their own little worlds.

He could see, vaguely, Nunnally's hand in this place despite its neglect and despite the Black Knights’ authority. He saw posters for education that had been vandalized, most likely the same day they'd been put up. He could see the park, just a bit away, kept surprisingly clean, though only a few people hung against the chain link fence surrounding it. A basketball court sat within, the nets long gone but the court oddly pristine. Nunnally was trying to save the world from itself, fixing what Lelouch had been unable to touch. It made him smile. It hadn't changed many, but he imagined a few had seen the posters and had dreamed.

The night was ugly in this corner of the city, blanketed by spotty lamplight and indistinct figures crawling through the dark, slinking around the lights to rendezvous points they should never reach. He imagined acting against them, acting as an invisible vigilante, and shook his head at himself. In that same dream, he could walk with Nunnally through the place, see her scrunched face as she saw others' pain and vowed to fix it, and he would be advising her. In that dream, he perhaps would not be invisible.

He walked to his own rendezvous point, letting the impossible drip off his back like water. The streets were far more alive now than during the day, as people from every walk of life came in hats and sunglasses and hunched shoulders to meet with those who leaned possessively against the walls, knowing their superiority to the rest of the rabble, knowing these streets like their own skin. Lelouch, invisible, tracked the movements of these men, how they walked, how they sneered, until he could adopt their mannerisms if he had to. At the moment, however, he let himself walk as he always had, as he'd been taught from birth, with a strong stride and his chin high. A noble, if an invisible one.

He arrived at the designated drop-off, a building two blocks from his hideaway, one overgrown with underbrush but otherwise in good condition. One might think it almost a haven in this corner of town, but the smells surrounding it suggested a good deal of drugs, and the boarded-up windows, despite the good maintenance, told of dealings gone unseen.

Lelouch had arrived early, and he swept the area. There were several people waiting here, and several more people who came to meet them. It was a good place for the man to choose, normally – so many people not wanting to be seen will not want to see. But the businessmen and those from better positions would have an easier time recognizing Lelouch, and that was bad. He touched his hair, then pulled his hood up over it. Darkness couldn't hide his slim profile, however. He practiced adopting the stances he'd seen on his way over.

He'd just gotten it down and nearly gave up his invisibility when someone raced up to a man leaning on the other edge of the wall mere meters from where Lelouch stood. "Stick," the leaning man said, acknowledging the other man as Lelouch might have a member of the Black Knights. Stick doubled over for a second, clutching his side. The man crossed his arms and tapped his fingers. The action wasn't one Lelouch would normally employ, but it got ‘Stick’ talking. "The embassy," he said with a gasp. Lelouch tensed. "Something's happening."

"'Something's happening,'" the man repeated slowly. Lelouch's heart kicked into overdrive.

"There's been an attack. It looks like everyone's running mad."

Lelouch itched to leave, but he stood his ground. He felt someone near him and turned to see his own contact coming to their meeting place. He snarled.

"The guards locked the place up. I saw Zero, too! He was running down the halls." Stupid Suzaku, acting foolishly all the time. Unless Nunnally had been in danger? Was Nunnally in danger? "And others, all headed somewhere. I don't know what's going on, but something is, and they're trying to hide it."

That was all the useful information Lelouch was going to get. He looked at his contact and controlled his features. When he was ready, he hugged the shadows and slowly showed himself, acting as if he'd just turned the corner. His contact jumped, but he controlled himself and nodded. The man would rationalize having missed Lelouch before. "I got the stuff," he said. Lelouch felt something in him churning.

Suzaku had run. Right past the door. Visible to everyone.

"I'll have someone here to pick it up in an hour," he said. The man frowned. Lelouch gave him a small wad of money, and the man was appeased. He turned on his heel, walked toward the corner at a measured pace, and slipped around the edge of the building. As he did, he disappeared once more. Then he ran full tilt back to that dilapidated house, to C.C., and only let himself slow when he had to open the door. He forced himself to wait to open the door, to ensure no one watched. This time, someone was looking, and he snarled. It took precious seconds for the person to boredly look somewhere else and he was finally able to slip inside.

C.C. was nearly done her pizza. He stormed in. “Come with me.” She took one look at him and stood. She even let the last piece go to waste. He supposed something in his countenance warned her. He didn't care.

"Another attack?" C.C. asked, her tone just slightly disbelieving, and Lelouch got the message. This was not one of D.D.'s games of cat and mouse. This time it was real.

"Get the items from our friend," he said. "I'll distract her until you get them to the embassy."

“Instructions?”

“You’ll get them.”

She didn't bother asking any more questions. She just ran.

His plan was already twisting in on itself. Still, he had to act. Against an immortal, a mortal would die. Not Suzaku, most likely, because of his Geass, but Nunnally, surely, and perhaps others who couldn't afford to die. Empress Tianzi and Xingke were both staying there, after all. They were integral, as well.

Lelouch caught the door as it closed and raced outside. He hurried to the embassy, his lungs heaving like Stick's just a few minutes ago. He grimaced. He wasn't cut out for all this running.


	7. His Own Will

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More than one plan goes into action.

Kallen hesitated as Toudou turned toward Nunnally's estate. She held her hand to her necklace, wishing desperately for her Guren, knowing it had been locked away with the other Knightmares for a reason, knowing the only way to get it would be for Nunnally, Tianzi, and Kaguya all to give her permission. Still, the key gave her confidence, and it was with that that she stood her ground as Toudou ordered her to hurry.

"My job is to look for C.C.," she told him. His eyes narrowed. She stood firm. "If she's working as I think she is, then she'll come this way," she said, gesturing to the crowd pooling around the entrance to the embassy. C.C. would have to battle her way through them, which meant she would have to show herself. That meant Kallen would be able to catch her. She knew Toudou had figured out the same. Toudou was, because of that realization, hesitating in protecting the man he'd sworn himself to. She nodded toward the building. "Go to him. I'll stay here for her."

It wasn't as if she didn't want to fight. The very idea of not standing by Zero's side made her blood burn. But this was more important. She needed to find out what C.C was doing, if she was acting on Lelouch's last orders. If she was, then Kallen knew she would have to help the green-haired bitch. In order to redeem herself from her shame.

Toudou also seemed to see this. He bowed his head before hurrying off. Kallen only watched him for a short second, then she scanned the crowd. Civilians had heard the crashes, the small explosions that had eventually alerted the cops, and then those like herself out in the field.

There was no official story about what was happening inside, but battles were difficult to misunderstand. This time, any chance of hiding the fighting was gone. Already several news crews were camping out in front of the embassy, both brave and foolish reporters coming to her to demand to know what was happening. Thankfully, the cops were keeping people for the most part away. Kallen didn't want to be responsible for punching some paparazzi's face in.

The sounds crescendoed behind her. Kallen wanted desperately to move inside and defend Lelouch's legacy. Her fingers itched with it. She kept her feet planted through sheer effort. If the sounds behind her were any indication, C.C. would be here soon.

She heard shocked shouts coming from her left. When she turned to the sound, she saw a group of people turning away from her and the sounds of battle from within the embassy. Kallen felt something in her chest clamp. There was a shocked scream from a woman, and then people were moving away, leaving an empty stretch of space in the middle of the crowd. Kallen hurried forward, even as two cops came over to ask what was happening.

"Someone's collapsed!" a woman said, and pointed.

She pushed one of the cops as he prepared to break formation and see who'd fallen. At the sight of her, dressed as she was in her old Black Knights uniform, he quickly stumbled aside.

There really was someone on the ground, and that someone didn't look like C.C. The woman was petite, wider than C.C., and seemed to have a permanent tan. Still, Kallen moved forward cautiously, noting the slim jeans and bright, sparkling shirt. The woman had most likely been on a date, or perhaps at a club, when she'd heard the commotion and come to investigate. She tried to imagine C.C. wearing the outfit and could easily picture it, the arrogant harlot. But this wasn't her. She checked the woman for injuries, then turned her around. Someone snapped a picture, and she glared a warning at the crowd.

The face was all wrong. Larger nose, eyes a bit closer together, lower cheekbones. It wasn't her.

A diversion, then.

She searched the crowd, but she couldn't see any woman who fit the figure she was hunting for. Then, for a split second, she thought she saw a very familiar back, one she'd followed, guarded with her life. Just like that, it was gone, and she blinked.

She took a deep breath and stood. "Get her to the hospital," she said to the cop, and returned to her place before the crowd. C.C. may have been able to sneak around her while she checked the victim, but she was staying a bit longer nonetheless. If she heard anything new inside, she would know C.C. had joined the fight. Only then would she leave her self-imposed post.

* * *

The embassy was in chaos.

Lelouch stared at the lobby, amazed at how quickly things had escalated. The tables filled with pamphlets and papers now lay broken. Papers and pamphlets sat strewn across the floor, peppering the tiles with information on the building’s history and layout.

Just inside, past the large entry room, sat the main room, wide and round, the flags of every country on the wall. Now everything was torn, ripped, pulled asunder; the flags lay in shambles on their hangings or sat stripped entirely, their carcasses left on the floor. As Lelouch walked through, thankfully invisible, he saw bodies among the torn cloth. Guards only, he found, and felt a wave of relief. He looked around again, his gaze more critical.

Bullet holes shaped the walls, telling of a mad race to find the perpetrator, even without seeing her. There were no unmanned blood splotches, however, so D.D. was still most likely unharmed. A quick check told him the bodies had been killed with bullets, as well. D.D. had a gun. She most likely wasn't trying to use any sort of subterfuge, which left her with anything from a pistol to an automatic – the shots were too focused to be shotgun blasts, but some men had more than one bullet in them. Most likely a semi, but Lelouch wouldn't count out a pistol hidden somewhere on her.

The fight hadn't started in this room, but instead had been carried. Most bodies faced to the hall on the right, the one Lelouch knew led to Nunnally's and Zero's rooms. Which had she been after? Or had she sought both? Lelouch's lips thinned. In any case, she'd gone to the right, toward the meeting and guest rooms. If she continued further, she could head to the gardens – and the unknown entrance that she may be aware of now, after Lelouch and C.C. had dragged her dead weight through it.

That meant she still had a potential escape route that no one else knew about. _His_ escape route. Unfortunately, though he’d been ready for that, he hadn’t been ready for the battle to have progressed so far. Which meant that Lelouch needed to hurry.

He marked a corner of the room near the floor for C.C. when she arrived, a quick 'x' and a short caption. Then he hurried to the right, ignoring the shouts and calls and stamping feet from his left, to study what had happened before the main room had been hit.

Lelouch traced the bullet holes that had sunk into the wall of the right hall. Two bodies slumped against one another on the floor; they'd obviously stayed back to provide cover fire. Lelouch wondered if they'd been doing so for Zero's sake, Nunnally's, or both.

Footsteps. Two soldiers nearly bumped into him as they hurried past. He had to flatten himself against the wall, one elbow brushing the side of one of the corpses. The two soldiers were carrying an injured man between them. From what Lelouch could see, the wounded soldier wouldn't make it outside. The men carried him through the main hall, anyway, and Lelouch continued to Zero's chambers.

It was immediately apparent that this was where the battle had begun. Here there __were__ unmanned blood spills, along with upended tables and chairs. Lelouch marked off two different areas, then tried to correlate how things happened.

The blood arrowed out from the direction of the doorway, as if Suzaku had stepped into the room, found D.D. within, and opened fire. The knee-jerk reaction to shoot first, ask questions later certainly seemed like Suzaku's inelegant approach. The idea of D.D. standing and waiting, however, grated. She liked surprises, big surprises that would involve everyone. She loved theatrics just as much as Lelouch did. She wouldn’t make subtle gestures. She wouldn't wait.

So he looked at it again before he left, even as something several halls down crashed and broke. Suzaku had been standing in the doorway, that was certain. Had he in fact been leaving? Or had he been backing away from D.D.? No. That wasn't his style.

He made a small sound of triumph and smirked. Beyond the mess of the furniture was a familiar arrangement of metal – Nunnally’s wheelchair. Suzaku hadn’t been the only one entering the room. Nunnally, clearly, and possibly Tianzi, as well. So Suzaku had gone on the defensive the moment D.D. made her move. Which she would have, since she would have had an audience.

Now that he paid closer attention, the upended table, pockmarked as it was with a few bullet holes, made sense as a shield. The chairs were thrown around the room – distractions. Suzaku had led Nunnally and potentially Tianzi from the room, shooting as his Geass ordered until he'd finally managed a few hits. The gunshots would have alerted the guards, and the threat to Nunnally would have made Suzaku run. Thus the report of Zero racing through the halls.

He sighed and hurried to Nunnally's room, marking off another corner before running down the next corridor. He was officially panting. He hadn't had to run this much even as Zero. The past year had been more for going slowly than anything else. How did Suzaku manage his level of stamina? How did anyone?

The fighting was getting worse. Shouts, screams. Silence. Lelouch systematically marked parts of the walls and furniture, always sliding just past the edges of gunfire and broken appliances. When finally he finished, he sighed, stood at his most regal height, and tucked the marker into his pocket. Then he waded through the massive clumps of bodies and followed the shouting to its source.

* * *

C.C. hissed at the size of the crowd. It was like a wave crashing to the shore, a moving mass of weight and body temperature that swarmed over a police barricade she couldn't even manage to see. Hulking masses of morons incapable of getting on with their own business. She huffed. Of course Lelouch had given her a small box full of things she couldn't half name. She wouldn't even be able to get through the crowd with it, let alone bring it inside and figure out just what Lelouch had planned with it all.

Her hat was a pathetic disguise if she was going to have to spend an inordinate amount of time in the open with these fools. She considered going invisible and taking a chance, but Lelouch would be even more irate if she managed to get his supplies destroyed.

It didn't leave her with a lot of options. She was either going to be invisible and ruin Lelouch’s plan, or she would be visible and she would be stopped, thus ruining Lelouch’s plan. Stupid Lelouch.

She sighed. It meant a distraction was in order. She could already see Lelouch's face – exasperation, annoyance. Another night without pizza. But it wasn't her fault! She glared at the idiot bystanders and walked off. It was because of them that she wouldn't get any pizza. If anyone should be punished, it was them.

She blinked. Should she…? But she barely considered the prospect of showing them all infinity before she just strode away faster. As if that would do her any good. Lelouch would never forgive her, and the amount of time it took would be about equal. The distraction would be better. Hopefully she could explain her tardiness well enough, or work the contents of the box well enough, to get at least a little reward.

* * *

Several times, Kallen almost ran into the building. Several times, even though the sounds of battle were recognizable to her, she nearly turned to the double doors instead of the people crowding the line of police. But even though she kept her attention steady, there were no sudden changes in movement, no startled voices or sudden shifts. And while C.C. was an Immortal, she wasn't on Lelouch's level of genius. Her entrance wouldn’t be subtle.

It was as if she'd summoned the woman through thought alone. A crash and scream resounded from just a short pace from the estate. The crowd turned almost as one, greedy for the chance to see carnage, even as women covered their mouths and men hunched their shoulders. Fools who didn't understand what destruction truly was.

Some of the guards holding the people back raced to the scene. Kallen’s patience had finally paid off. When a patch of people moved to see what had happened – from the smoke and the honking cars, it was most likely a crash of some kind – she was prepared to see something impossible. And she did, almost immediately; from the curling mass of turning onlookers, she saw a footprint. It was slightly wet, and sounded the tiniest bit sticky. It passed the open space and the line of police slowly reforming, then squelched its way toward the building.

C.C. was finally here.

Kallen nearly ran over and stopped the woman. But she couldn't. Now, in the moment she'd awaited since she'd heard C.C. was back, she hesitated. Just what was she going to do? Stopping C.C. might mean making her run, and whatever she was doing, she was helping Zero. Of that, if nothing else, Kallen was certain. She couldn’t jeopardize that.

Not to mention that, if she scared C.C. away, then any chance of learning what Lelouch had demanded of her could be lost. She would have to be careful.

So instead of grabbing for the woman, Kallen waited until the immortal slipped inside. The door actually opened and closed. Kallen had been curious as to whether that would be necessary or not.

She followed after, keeping as silent as possible. Someone called to her, but she just waved in their general direction and ignored them. She wasn't called for again. It wasn't like she was an average cop, in any case; she was free to do as she pleased. The perks of having friends in high places.

She entered the building a few long moments after C.C. had, yet the immortal still stood just a pace ahead. C.C. placed a box on the ground and knelt. One finger traced the wall as if memorizing its texture. Then she smirked.

Kallen caught the door before it could close and hunched as much as possible by the entrance. She tucked into the jamb, even as one hand strained to hold the door open just enough to keep it from clicking shut and alerting C.C.

As she watched, nearly holding her breath, C.C. opened the box and shifted the contents within. Glass chinked together, and something sloshed. Liquid? There were rustling noises, too. C.C. pulled out what looked to be a bunsen burner and a beaker, then placed them before her. Kallen tensed. Had the woman done it before? There were black marks on the wall. Was she in the habit of burning things in the entrance of Nunnally's home? Why?

She nearly gave herself away when C.C. turned the thing on. It was instinct to want to run forward and stop the woman from burning the building down. She only stopped when she realized the thing was safely set away from the wall.

Had C.C. brought it here for some specific purpose? Did that purpose have anything to do with the battle, or was this another part of whatever plans she’d been given? What exactly would this lead to?

C.C. pulled out what was obviously some sort of powder, then some liquid. Kallen glared as she mixed the two together. Immediately, smoke poured out from the small beaker, pluming into the air and sinking to the ground. C.C. wrinkled her nose and stood, grabbing the box once more.

What the hell was going on?

Battle cries sounded suddenly from their left, and C.C. cocked her head once before eyeing the room. She went to another corner, repeated her ministrations, this time mixing something that made the air above the beaker haze like a thermal, then left, heading to the right, away from the fighting.

Kallen scowled. Just what was the woman planning?

She waited a few moments, not wanting to get caught, then finally let the door shut. Her wrist throbbed lightly in relief. She hurried over to the hopefully-harmless gas still spewing thickly from the mouth of the beaker. There really were black marks on the wall, but they weren't scorch marks. It was words, followed by numbers – measurements, and – she froze.

She recognized it.

She knew that handwriting.

Her hands trembled. She reached out to trace the thin script. It wasn't possible. But she would recognize it anywhere. He'd given so many instructions, some of them simply left out for her to peruse, and after she'd found out his identity, he had no longer bothered hiding his handwriting from her at school. But… but it couldn't be.

Left behind. Maybe he'd planned for these things all that time ago, and had just left these notes behind so C.C. would know what to do?

She leaned her head on the wall, even as a strange, cloying scent drifted in the air. Yes, that had to be it. Lelouch the genius had prepared for the building to be broken into, and had readied this just in case. She curled her fingers against the wall until she could tap her fists against the plaster. He'd planned his own death, after all. Why not plan for possible circumstances that could arise afterward?

She took a deep breath, then another. The smell was getting worse – it stemmed from the second concoction. She straightened. If C.C. was following signs left all those years ago, then Kallen had to follow her own.

C.C. had gone right, most likely to set up the rest of the trap. Kallen would do her part, as always. Which had always been to defend Zero.

She turned left.

* * *

More bodies littered the floor the further he traveled, but now they faced in all directions, back where he'd come, forward to where he pressed on. He had to stop far too many times to leave notes for C.C., until he was afraid anything he did would be too late. As he made his way back to the lobby, he passed C.C. She gave him a dirty look as she passed, clearly mouthing the word ‘pizza.’ He rolled his eyes and nodded, hurrying his pace.

Beyond the lobby, so far down the opposite wing that it sounded muffled, he heard someone still fighting, shouting, and his racing heart calmed. If anyone was still alive, then that meant Suzaku was, too. And as long as he lived, Nunnally would remain safe.

He hurried as quietly as he could down the West Wing to the major halls. Empress Tianzi would have been placed somewhere around here, but her room was empty. If she’d been in the building, then Suzaku wouldn’t be the only one still able to fight. Of course, that was assuming that Xingke wasn’t on his last leg, which would make the man a liability. Which, under the circumstances, was far more likely. Suzaku couldn’t _afford_ another liability. Lelouch left another quick marker for C.C. and practically raced out once more.

The sounds of battle had backed up until they were close to the gardens. Several guards, including even Kallen, were ordering escape routes and helping with the injured. Kallen looked angry, tense, her features almost exaggerated in her fury. She wasn’t with Suzaku. He didn’t know her allegiance, so it was good that she was separated from him. Whoever still lived would be in good hands.

The fight had stalled in the room just before the garden entrance. It was a room Lelouch remembered as a waste of space, holding another small table in the middle and several chairs acting as a sort of settee. The paintings on the wall, when Lelouch had been living there, had been of nobility enjoying balls and dances. The room, though spacious, had been fairly small, and hadn't provided a second exit. Lelouch's lips thinned. Even Suzaku wouldn't be stupid enough to enter such a room. So had he been herded there, or had he gotten desperate? Only a few things would make Suzaku desperate enough to run into a dead end, and all of them were bad.

He heard the shouts again, this time pockmarked by bullets, and the tension eased again. That voice was Xingke's. It was pained, tired, and explained why Suzaku had let them all be trapped. The idiot.

Obviously Nunnally and likely Tianzi, as well, had been speaking with Suzaku as he’d headed toward his room, for whatever reason. Either that or they’d both gone to see him and interrupted him. Either way, they’d needed to be protected, which had altered whatever engagement may or may not have been initially planned by D.D. That much he'd already gleaned. But when they'd been attacked, someone had gotten hurt. That would be the only thing that might explain the slow progress, the fact that D.D. was whittling away at their forces and Suzaku had yet to properly escape. Knowing Suzaku, it wouldn't be Nunnally – he would have moved instinctively to protect her. That left only Tianzi, since Suzaku wouldn't slow down for any injury of his own. And Xingke would come forward as soon as the sounds of battle could be heard, and would only stay by Tianzi's side.

All things considered, Tianzi would be injured. Not severely, or Suzaku would have taken the shot himself and just turned it into a minor wound. So probably just on her leg somewhere. Enough to slow down attempts to retreat. Enough to force them to hole up somewhere. Lelouch worried about the femoral artery; if the girl died, then tensions between the Chinese Federation and the old Britannian Empire would rise anew.

Not to mention the fact that Tianzi’s injury was keeping both Nunnally and Suzaku from being able to find someplace safe. Xingke, likely near death himself, would have only been useful at the start of the battle, and was now slowing everyone down nearly as much as Tianzi. Suzaku would likely find a way to live, but if the Geass forced him to protect himself by letting Nunnally die?

Things had to be settled.

The hall to the room Suzaku and the others were in was wide, though narrower than those at the front of the building. Still, Zero and Nunnally could walk side by side through the hall if they desired. Yet now the space was constricted with bodies. Some lay in the middle of the walkway, inhibiting straightforward progress, while still more leaned against the walls, throats ripped open. Blood nearly painted the walls red. Tapestries and paintings littered the floor, covered the carcasses with clean-cut swathes of fabric. Those lines were mirrored in the walls, scored by some blade. Weapons lay forgotten at men's feet. Lelouch picked one up and checked to be sure the blood hadn't ruined the gun. Only a few bullets remained, but that was fine. He would have to time them perfectly, in any case. And he only needed three.

Still, even though adrenaline thundered in his veins, he waited. He needed to balance his timing perfectly. If he moved too soon, she would leave, and he would not yet have the means by which to stop her. He waited for more gunshots, then used the noise to mask his movement as he passed the door on the way to the gardens. He couldn't help but take a peek inside as he passed, and though he'd been prepared for it, seeing them still caused emotions to burst like starlight inside of him.

Of course Suzaku had Nunnally and Tianzi hidden in the far corner of the room, where they would be safest. Nunnally, lying on the ground without her wheelchair – Suzaku would have scooped her up and run with her in order to get her out quickly and safey – was tending to Tianzi, a fierce, nearly angry look on her face. Tianzi was huddled on the floor, fighting tears as Nunnally wrapped a piece of her dress around the girl's leg.

D.D. was facing Suzaku, staring into the room, thankfully mindless of what happened behind her. Her clothes were stained completely crimson, to the point where even the tips of her hair were reddened. Yet she remained invisible to the men. It was obvious by Xingke's stance that he had no clue where she could be, and was angry with the whole situation. Well, he would be, at least until Tianzi was safe.

But Suzaku. Suzaku, golden, glorious jock that he was, was staring straight at her. As Suzaku raised his gun to shoot, he instinctively followed wherever she moved to try to avoid. Lelouch realized at least half the blood on her was her own. So long as she was an active danger to him, Suzaku, using the Geass Lelouch had placed on him so long ago, couldn't miss.

He entered the garden slowly, his eyes trying in vain to penetrate the darkness within. Shapes loomed on either side of him, dark upon dark. It was of paramount importance that he keep D.D. from entering this room. He had initially planned to have another concoction of false smoke, then a very small fire burning by the entrance to lend realism through scent. Waiting for C.C. to arrive with the necessary ingredients for that, however, would be foolish. Though Empress Tianzi didn't seem to be in immediate peril, there were only so many bullets in a gun, and D.D. was immortal.

That left a far less elegant approach. He looked around, ready to go back and rig up a few traps if necessary, when he took a closer look. He'd noticed before that Nunnally had changed the place to have more Japanese plants, even though it was still inherently European in design. But now he noticed something more, and wanted to thank his sister for loving Japan enough to try, without knowing enough of it to plan accordingly.

His gaze trailed along the paths. Several of them were hedged in by Japanese boxwood. Within were several colors of chrysanthemums and azaleas, creating bursts of color that were kept from overwhelming the eye by Japanese garden junipers. And then, along the edges of each walkway, specifically planted to make the place look more wild, were Japanese pieris shrubs, their pink and white flowers breaking the monotony of green left by the boxwoods.

It was all too perfect. It took some time to find the fire alarms, but after that, everything went quickly. He already had cloth and a lighter in preparation for his initial plans. A single spark, and oh, how quickly it all went up into flames.

After all, the boxwood and pieris and even the azaleas were all highly flammable. Whoever had made the garden should have been fired.

The trees weren't as easily lit, and they burned slowly as the room heated and caught aflame. Thankfully, the gases he had C.C. creating were noncombustible. He rushed away from the flames and watched the smoke billow from the room before he closed the doors behind him. A flash fire would be even better; burn the woman as she attempted to run. All he needed to do then was make sure Suzaku and Nunnally stayed away; C.C. would survive if the worst should happen.

Finally, C.C. showed up, carrying the box though there had to be little to nothing left within. She set it down when she saw him and put her hands on her hips. She looked pointedly toward the box, then back to him before raising an eyebrow. He could only be thankful that she didn't speak. There hadn’t been gunfire for too long. He itched to search the room, even knowing that he might throw off his own plans if he did so. Noise would be just as bad as movement.

Finally, he heard a voice speak out. Of course it was D.D.’s. "He who watches over you will not slumber," she said, her voice echoing down the hall. Still no gunshots, though the fire within the garden blazed. Though Lelouch had thought to rip out the wires of the fire alarms in the garden, he hadn't been able to hunt down the rest in time.

He held up a hand to C.C., demanding she remain still. He nodded to the box, his gaze piercing. She rolled her eyes. All of his instructions had been taken care of, then. They would just have to hope it was enough time.

The smell of smoke reached his nose just as the alarms finally went off. He used the noise to hurry to the side of the room.

From where he stood, he could see every human lift his or her head to stare at nothing as if they could catch sight of the sound. Yet D.D. did nothing more than smile and tilt her head. "People protect what they love."

Lelouch frowned. All of this – the death and destruction, chasing after Suzaku and Nunnally and harming Tianzi – had not been simply to lure him out. Certainly, it would be a nice bonus, but it wasn't her main concern. No. She wanted Zero destroyed. Not just his life, but his name. Everything that made Zero the symbol that he was. Dealing with Lelouch was simply part and parcel to such a task.

By now, she also knew that Lelouch was taking strides to not be seen. Did she know he didn’t wish to be seen even by Suzaku? Was she attempting to put some sort of dissent between them, so that Lelouch had to fight Suzaku himself in his efforts to keep the idiot safe?

The problem was how easy it would be to do so. Lelouch couldn't allow it.

Suzaku's gaze narrowed, still fixed on where D.D. stood, while Xingke's gaze whipped around toward her, no longer searching for signs of fire. Tianzi still huddled on the floor, face pulled in a rictus of pain. Nunnally scooted over to shield Tianzi and glared forward. Even trapped on the ground, unable to move freely without her wheelchair, she looked fierce, strong. Lelouch's heart broke to see it, even as he smiled in pride. If only he could have seen her grow.

"C.C. was your goal?" Suzaku asked. He moved slightly, as well, to better shield Nunnally.

Lelouch nearly sighed. Not only was Suzaku oblivious enough to actually believe that, he'd completely missed the 'he' in her first comment. Oh, well. It only helped Lelouch if the fool missed every single clue.

D.D. didn’t bother answering. She turned the door. Lelouch barely hid himself in time. C.C. raised a single brow at him. He lifted his chin to indicate the door.

With one pale hand, D.D. gestured to the destruction she'd caused, then to the few remaining survivors, and she smiled. "See the conquering hero comes! Sound the trumpets, beat the drums!"

Nunnally gasped.

Lelouch grinned. C.C. took her place just before him, finally stepping out in front of the entrance. Alarms blared across the expanse of the hall. He tilted his head, and C.C. held out her arms. An invitation. But as soon as D.D. started to move toward them, she stopped again. His grin widened. So, she had finally noticed – the smells of gases rising in the air.

She covered her nose. "I would much prefer to suffer from the clean incision of an honest lancet than from a sweetened poison."

As if it were nothing, she turned back to Suzaku – to Zero. Taking advantage, of course, of the fact that Lelouch could not dare speak, in case he was heard by the others. "Piety," she said, "requires us to honor truth above our friends." She stared at Suzaku. "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it. Where law ends, tyranny begins."

Lelouch tapped on C.C.'s leg with his foot, and she dropped her arms and slid into the room. She stood just inside. Suzaku's gaze shifted to her for a moment before returning to D.D.

Yet before Lelouch managed to force D.D. to act, Xingke spoke. "A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent." At D.D.'s look, he tilted his head. Though his arms were shaking sorely, he managed to pull them up in front of him again. Lelouch had seen and dismissed the sword, but he saw now that he shouldn't have. Xingke was on his last leg, but he was still more capable in such a state than most. Still, he didn't try to attack anyone. Yet. "You speak, invisible woman, but you don't seem inclined to gain knowledge."

The distraction was more than C.C. needed, and she went to Nunnally's side and touched her shoulder. Nunnally jumped for a short second, stiffening, then immediately relaxed and grabbed Tianzi's hand. "C.C.'s here, right?" she asked.

D.D. narrowed her eyes. Lelouch tilted his own head and looked idly on the pale woman. Her lips thinned even as he watched. As he'd suspected; as soon as anyone's involved in the plot, even to the slightest degree, they become enemies to her. And now her attention was turning to his sister.

Her second fatal mistake.

Nunnally, however, had become strong. And her strength, however much he wished she didn't have it, was necessary to him right now.

"If she's here, then…" She looked to Tianzi.

Xingke grimaced, but he didn't waste any time. He moved and scooped up the injured Tianzi, baring his back and twisting his sword to the side as he did. He held Tianzi to his chest with one trembling arm. Tianzi quickly helped, wrapping her arms and legs around him, though she flinched as she tightened her injured leg's grip.

Nunnally held her head high and stared about two feet off from where D.D. stood. The cloying scent of the gases was becoming thicker. C.C. bent down and whispered, "away from the gardens," in Nunnally's ear. She nodded, just a bit, and reached out for Suzaku. Lelouch gritted his teeth through the lance of pain. He couldn't carry her out. He had to stay. And if it was to be anyone, it had to be Suzaku.

That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, to know his sister needed help and he could not give it to her.

Zero's face was hidden by the mask, of course, but Lelouch didn't need to see Suzaku's expression to know what he was feeling. His shoulders were too straight, his fingers clenched around his gun, useless though it now was, empty like D.D.'s had most likely been for quite a while, since the throats of the men in the hall had all been ripped open – D.D. making use of her bare hands, a thought that made Lelouch a bit uncomfortable. He didn't know if it was a strength associated with immortality, one which C.C. had yet to show him, or if it was simply a skill the woman possessed. While both were dangerous enough, the latter meant a weakness in himself he hadn't accounted for.

Suzaku ignored his obvious feelings of anger and frustration and took Nunnally's hand. "I should stay," he said, just as Lelouch had known he would.

"It's a fight between immortals," Nunnally said. Suzaku, clad in Lelouch's old skin, tensed, but he took Nunnally by the shoulders and lifted her up until he could clutch her knees.

When she was safely in his arms, he looked toward the entrance – right at C.C. He said nothing, but Lelouch knew – straight spine, chin high. A warning to stay away. A promise to harm if the warning were to be ignored.

Lelouch smiled and shot D.D.

The sound made everyone jump. D.D. gasped. Xingke pulled up his sword with his free hand, though he stayed back, Tianzi huddled against his chest. Suzaku stared at the entrance, having apparently seen the gun and Lelouch's arm. Just as he’d apparently seen C.C.’s entrance.

Suzaku hesitated, just as Lelouch had known he would. And so Lelouch shot again, this time aiming for Suzaku's shoulder. Lelouch watched as Suzaku's eyes flashed red for an instant, and Zero moved, bending down and to the right, away from the shot. Suzaku's gloved hands curled instinctively around Nunnally, keeping her close so she wasn’t jostled. Bare fury shook that cloaked frame, but he took the warning and hurried to the door. Just as Lelouch had known he would. Xingke, his lips thinner than ever before, did the same. Lelouch hurried into the hall behind the garden, barely slipping around the corner before Suzaku raced out, his eyes darting around in search of Lelouch as he ran.

Only when their footsteps disappeared into the thickening fog did he step forward once more. D.D. clutched her chest, where Lelouch had shot, and glared at him. "The world has no room for cowards."

Lelouch raised the gun this time so that she could see it. He'd missed her chest, partly on purpose and partly because he wasn't a marksman like Suzaku. C.C. gave him the thumbs up, and he finally replied. "You were trying to lure them into a trap. All those dead soldiers, and all so you could take them outside to those bystanders. Trying to make your way to the gardens, I presume." Her eyes narrowed. Her grimace widened. He wanted to laugh. "So obvious. Wanting to take Zero out into the open, distracting him by making him cover for the two girls. All so that you could get him outside and get his mask off. Even without your gun, you could do it, couldn't you? Just knock him unconscious, perhaps even kill him."

C.C. moved toward him. The scent of the gases had become so powerful D.D. and C.C. both wrinkled their noses. C.C.'s attempt to escape it nearly made him roll his eyes.

"And yet," Lelouch continued, "you were always hoping I would show up. Because if you forced me to show myself, everything would be destroyed – or, in your eyes, all truths would be revealed." He lifted his head and shifted his aim, not toward D.D., but out into the hallway, where the gases were creating a nearly lavender fog. "But all people's beliefs are truths in their eyes. Every memory, every hope, every word spoken and action wrought – all these are lies, so long as one believes them to be. So watch now, as I create my own truth!"

He fired his last bullet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, the list. Here:
> 
> Bible  
> Jacques Yves Cousteau  
> Thomas Morell  
> Mark Twain  
> Aristotle  
> William Pitt  
> William Pitt  
> William Blake (Xingke's quote)  
> Robert Louis Stevenson
> 
> Allow me to also note that the quote of 'my own personal truth' may be recognized by some as a quote from an 'in the next episode' in the first episodes of the second season. Lelouch reacts like this when remembering how Charles had altered his memory, saying that his memories were his own personal truth. When re-watching the show, I literally jolted in my seat hearing it. Not only did it mesh perfectly with my story, it told me I wasn't doing a horrible job relating Lelouch's emotions. It made me happy enough to tackle this thing once again, even though I still feel as if I'm failing many of these characters in my attempts to capture their essences.


	8. His Own Strength

_"Only the forgotten are truly dead."_

-Tess Gerritsen

* * *

 

He was being used.

It hit him, as he listened to Nunnally's orders to avoid the garden. He'd already turned away from it – the order to live, he’d realized, and had looked back to see smoke billowing under the door. Fire. Fire, and Nunnally had known. Through will alone, he’d managed to keep from digging his fingers into Nunnally's skin.

He had seen C.C., something he hadn’t questioned much at the moment, too busy focused on keeping them all alive. She’d gone to Nunnally. He’d thought it had been to check the girl for wounds. Had C.C. spoken to her? Or had Nunnally known C.C.’s plan before D.D. had ever even attacked them?

No, that wasn't it. Nunnally would never harm someone else, not ever. Not for anything.

Of course, he'd thought the same of Lelouch, hadn't he?

Nunnally kept looking back, even though they'd already turned the corner, leaving C.C. to battle it out with the white-haired immortal woman. Suzaku couldn't care less what happened to either of them, but Nunnally obviously did. Her worry, no matter that she tried to hide it and send Empress Tianzi reassuring looks, was plain for Suzaku to see. How many times had he seen those eyebrows tilted just that way, those hands lifted to try to hide the small frown on her lips?

So no, she hadn't been a part of the plan. At least not until C.C. had decided to involve her somehow.

And so, by using Nunnally to get him out of that room, he was being used.

He might not have ever noticed it, except he recognized the feel of it. The knowledge of being used to the bitter end, of not really having the chance to make his own decisions – allowing Lelouch to continue, joining him, helping him, all for the sake of getting to end Lelouch's life, all to bring peace. Even when he did take Lelouch's life, it had been on Lelouch's terms and not his own. He’d ended up giving his very future to Lelouch's cause…

Manipulation. It reeked. It stank of betrayal and lack of trust.

If C.C. wanted him gone, then he needed to stay.

He barely made it out the door before he turned to Xingke. "I must return," he said, and Xingke stopped short.

He couldn't read the man's eyes, but Xingke was looking him up and down, from his mask to his shoulders to his arms to the cape, pulled away from his body for once as he held Nunnally tight in his grip, and then slowly back up again. The man was positively glaring when he regarded the mask once more. "What is happening within cannot be allowed to leave that room.”

Knowing him, he probably meant that it was dangerous, that Empress Tianzi had been hurt, which couldn't happen again. In other words, their responsibility was supposed to be to Nunnally and Tianzi. To protecting them. But he _had_ to go. He wasn’t brilliant like Lelouch. He didn’t know the right words. What could he say to make his departure acceptable?

He looked down at his arms. Nunnally watched him steadily. He laid Nunnally down on the ground, even as guards came near. He tensed. Could he trust Nunnally with them?

Kallen stepped in front of the guards, one hand held out. It was shaking. "Stay back," she said, and then turned to Suzaku – to Zero. "I will watch over her," she said, cutting off anything Xingke may have wanted to say. "Go."

Suzaku nearly tipped his head like a fool. Why was Kallen even here? Hadn't she been told to return to school?

He was desperate, though. Kallen was strong, and she had once been loyal to Zero. If nothing else, she was loyal to the idea of peace. And she’d once been Nunnally’s friend. He would have to entrust Nunnally to her. "If any harm comes to her, I will hold you personally responsible."

Kallen lifted her chin and glared. "I know her importance, Zero."

Suzaku wasn't sure how to take that. He would have to worry about it later. He brushed past Xingke, taking advantage of the man's hold on Tianzi to push through. Xingke hissed. "We will discuss this," the man said.

Suzaku couldn't care less.

That woman. As soon as he was out of eyesight, he raced back through the halls, stepping between corpses without thinking. That woman, for whatever reason, had wanted him gone and out of the way. To discuss secrets? To continue a plan of Lelouch's he'd been kept unaware of? Or to simply have him leave because he was useless?

The idea that he was considered useless, even now, swept away by Lelouch when the man was no longer around for Suzaku to call him out on it–

No. He wouldn't allow it.

* * *

Kallen searched Nunnally for injuries. Xingke abandoned his post and rushed to the officers still holding back the thinning population. She saw ambulances waiting just beyond the line of spectators, and Xingke and Empress Tianzi were both rushed into one. The doors had hardly closed before the vehicle sped off.

If Kallen pulled herself away from Nunnally and stood, she knew she would see that two more ambulances waited. More seemed to be on the way, unless the sirens she could hear were for the fire.

The fire.

She closed her eyes for a moment before turning to Nunnally. "Do you need an ambulance, too?" she asked.

Nunnally, however, simply shook her head. "No." She turned back toward the estate.

Kallen held her breath until her heartbeat calmed somewhat. The crowd was thinning more and more as she watched, the police finally pulling out their cuffs and threatening people with obstruction. It made the surroundings bleak; only the lawn, torn to dirt by the stamping herds of policemen and onlookers, the building broken and blaring behind them, and the deserted street far beyond, remained.

The fire had started on its own.

While C.C. had gone right, Kallen had gone left, knowing – believing she knew – that C.C. would merely set up a trap and return to where Kallen headed. So she'd headed away from the woman, ready to help Toudou protect Zero, only to get caught in the whirlwind of people attempting to get survivors out of the building. There had been so many injured. So many more dead. The ambulances waiting outside only remained because the leadership wasn’t yet all accounted for in the building, and they took priority. Five other ambulances had already sped away, filled to the brim with men and women who might have given their lives today to protect this world.

By the time she’d finally broken free, she’d found C.C. in a room adjacent to the room Zero had been in, a final beaker bubbling as the woman added some final ingredient. She’d backed out. Kallen had been ready to head to Zero, to reach his side and finally help him. Instead, she’d seen the garden door open on its own. She’d snuck past the room Zero was in, but hadn’t been able to keep herself from looking inside. There, in that room with Zero and Nunnally and Tianzi and Xingke, Zero had fired his last few rounds. To her, he’d been aiming at nothing – and then blood had spattered the wall.

Of course she'd thought the white-haired woman must have had an accomplice. That was why the garden door had opened as if by itself, only for someone else to get shot in the room with Zero. She’d ducked away, watched as the garden burned bright, and had decided to focus on giving Zero a clear exit back toward the front of the building. And then things had gone… odd.

She heard the soft, almost nonexistent pad of C.C.’s footsteps as she came near to the room beside Kallen. The garden door opened and closed again. Yet there was no sudden battle between C.C. and whoever had just – exited? – the garden. There was no sound of C.C. moving in reaction at all. There was no way the two hadn’t met, or that C.C. hadn’t noticed the door; it was doubtful immortals couldn’t see each other, so then why…?

As Kallen watched from the corner, she'd heard a woman's voice she didn't recognize talking about a man acting as a hero.

And… and…

 _ _The writing__.

She shook her head. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible. She'd watched… she'd seen… Lelouch hadn't survived.

She’d run. She’d taken the long way around to the front, right then and there, her mind empty of all but disbelief. She hadn’t stopped until she’d burst out the doors and faced the crowd still standing before the property.

"Are you all right?"

Kallen flinched. Nunnally watched her with furrowed brows, even as she sat in the open, unable to move. "Oh!" Kallen knelt beside her. "I'm so sorry. I should get you to an ambulance, if only to get you away from prying eyes." The sirens down the street blared louder. Kallen was certain now that they were for the fire.

She looked around. Only the cops remained; the place was finally on proper lockdown. Still, that didn’t mean that Nunnally was safe out in the open, or that it was appropriate for her to be sitting on the ground.

Besides, reporters were well known for ignoring police lockdown procedures.

Nunnally took another glance back toward the building, but she didn't protest when Kallen picked her up. She was heavier than Kallen had expected. She’d expected Nunnally to weigh how she looked, like a waif. She didn’t. Kallen had to readjust a few times before she could stand.

The silence between them returned. Kallen could think of nothing to break it as she made her way to the ambulance. Nunnally was Lelouch's sister, and had once been her friend. But when things had gone south and Kallen and Nunnally had ended up on different sides, Kallen had been torn between that old friendship, Lelouch's feelings for his sister, and the obstacle Nunnally had become.

Knowing that Nunnally had been on the Damocles, pressing the button for the FLEIJA to be launched, made fury bubble up anew. Yet Lelouch's all-encompassing love for his sister, the kind girl Kallen herself had once known, made the fury cool to the point where it felt like ice against her skin, until she felt almost numb. Nunnally had gotten caught up in the sin of war, just as Kallen had. Just as Lelouch had. They'd all become monsters.

She hadn't seen it in time with Lelouch. She'd been blinded by her own emotions. Because of them, she hadn't even tried to see the truth. This time she would. She would stand by Nunnally and Zero. She wouldn't turn away.

Finally, they reached the ambulance. Carefully, she placed Nunnally down on the bench within and stepped back to let the doctors work. She also made a point of holding her gun. Just in case.

Nunnally was given a clean bill of health, and with the doctors finally out of the way, Kallen’s mind returned to what she’d seen. The fire, started by a third immortal. Writing that belonged to someone long dead. C.C. and her acceptance of this third person.

It… could it really be him? Lel – the previous Zero. _Her_ Zero.

No. It didn't matter.

She clenched her fingers around her gun, took a deep breath, and checked the perimeter outside the ambulance. It didn't matter. If she stood strong in her beliefs and knew what she should do, then she wouldn't have any regrets.

But she'd done that before, and she had regrets.

No. Only one regret. That she’d failed the person who had saved the world.

So. She wouldn't fail him. This time, for sure, she wouldn't fail.

* * *

Toudou's first job had been to secure Zero and Nunnally. His second had been to secure their guests. His third had been to deal with the immortal woman who had hunted down Zero and harmed Chiba.

Yet when he'd entered the building, the first thing he'd noticed was the shouting. Not the smell, or the sight of bodies, or even the rushing feet as men pounded past the lobby into the right hall. No, he'd heard the shouting, and beneath that, like a bell chiming: the call of a cat.

He did not care enough about the life of an innocent animal to forsake his duties. He’d been about to go about his obligations, anyway, when the cat had then rounded the corner, seen him, and taken off again. He'd recognized it as Suzaku's cat; a foolish sentiment the boy should have gotten rid of, but may have been too weak, or perhaps too lonely, to do so. It wasn't the reason he'd stopped still and let the chaos around him go unanswered.

It was because, as he'd watched, the cat had seen him, __then looked behind him,__ and _then_ had taken off.

He'd reacted instinctively, turning down the hallway the cat had come from and preparing to attack whoever came from behind. Though it could have been Kallen, Toudou did not believe that to be the case. She was set on meeting with C.C. in order to understand what she had been excluded from. Toudou had understood, because even more than gaining information on the war between the immortals, they both had penances to make.

He’d waited. He’d heard no footsteps, seen no encroaching target. Yet Arthur was behind him, hissing horribly. The cat ran off entirely just as the lobby door swung silently open, then silently shut. __C.C.__ , he’d thought, and wondered if Kallen had missed her. He was prepared to have to confront her in order to get to Zero in time, but he waited, believing Kallen wouldn't miss the woman, even if she was invisible. The amount of people outside meant she would have had to show herself in some way, and Kallen would have recognized it.

But she hadn't. She did not show. He prepared to leave, sorry for Kallen’s failure and what it would mean to the woman, but unable to help at the moment. As he turned, he heard some light scraping sound. He looked back to the lobby. Black script appeared on the wall.

Toudou crept away as two men raced past, carrying a dead man in their arms. He heard the sounds of battle from behind them. He could go to them, try to fight off the impossible. But his duty was to protect Zero, and while the rest of the men deserved to live, as well, they would understand. They, too, had chosen to give their lives to the cause.

Yet he hesitated. He dared look back into the lobby, only to find more writing being scribbled onto the opposite wall. Toudou hid and watched the process. Kallen never came.

After a few minutes passed without any more writing, he walked over to the wall and studied that script.

To he who had stood by that man's side, watched him lay out strategies so complex and complete as to leave the world in awe, the small scratches on the wall could only be of _his_ making.

He understood, in that instant, everything that Zero had sacrificed.

While Toudou had prepared for death, Lelouch had prepared for eternal life. Leaving Zero as a symbol, leaving Nunnally as his voice, and now, finally, the missing piece: himself as eternal protector. Immortals never knew death. He would watch forever, sitting on the sidelines, helping without ever being known to exist. Toudou felt shame. What had he forsaken in his quest for peace? His honor? His pride? Here was a man who had given everything. Even his mortal life.

Even now, when Lelouch was supposed to be dead, he left nothing to chance – nothing to those who had failed to follow him. He did not trust them to carry out his mission. The only ones who received such an honor were Kururugi Suzaku and Lady Nunnally. Toudou, in turning his back on Zero, had lost Zero's favor.

It was not his duty to protect Zero. The job was Lelouch's alone to carry out.

Lelouch's plan had been absolute. It left no room for errors – or for those uninvolved to interfere. Which meant that Toudou, of his own volition, had become an outsider on the workings of that man's mind. No longer did he stand as part of Zero’s coalition. No longer did he stand as one of the world’s defenders. He was now an intruder.

As an intruder, what was he supposed to do that would not interfere with Zero's plan?

So he stayed back, held his ground, and helped some men escape before they died, keeping his presence far from that invisible one’s destination. To do more would mean to fight against Zero, and he had sworn to never make such a mistake again. All he could do was hope that his efforts would be rewarded with some sort of forgiveness.

At least now the possibility of forgiveness existed.

* * *

An explosion threw Suzaku to the ground as he neared the last hall. His fall was broken by bodies. The stench sank immediately into the thick fabric of his outfit. He struggled to get his feet beneath him; the bodies, though helpful in keeping him from injuring himself in his fall, made standing arduous.

The entire building had changed over the few minutes he'd been gone. There was smoke so thick he could hardly see, scents that made his nose wrinkle and his legs slow. He held his breath as he walked down the hall, one hand holding his cloak over his face. The fire in the garden was already spreading to the hall, spreading from the doorway to the bodies laying nearby.

Though he couldn't see anyone in the hall, there was a tension in the air that couldn't be missed. Just as he’d hoped, no one had moved on yet. He took a deep, shallow breath as he continued forward. The air really was thick with chemicals he couldn't name. D.D.'s doing, or C.C.'s? Who was the intended victim?

The idea that all of this destruction was caused solely to call C.C. out from hiding didn't sit right to him. Not only did C.C. have an ally who would be able to help her, it just didn't seem smart. He wasn't a strategist, but he was a warrior. Even he knew that wasn't a wise way to go about getting someone to come.

Plus, those efforts to bring C.C. out, if that’s what it all had been for, had gotten D.D. injured several times. Even though he and his men couldn't see her, they could simply shoot every corner of the room and hit something. The only problem was that they never knew where they’d hit her, or when, or where she'd fallen, unless a convenient spray of blood gave them a hint. And since she was immortal, she would always get back up and attack again. Because of that, they'd been forced to retreat, bit by bit, until they’d been backed into a corner, Empress Tianzi slowly bleeding out from the wound Suzaku hadn't been able to prevent.

That corner, however, had only been there because they’d refused to exit through the lobby. Xingke had been the one to point out how it seemed as if they were being herded toward those doors. When he’d pointed it out, they’d chosen to avoid the trap and back further into the building.

That had been when the woman had become a monster.

She’d seemed to care little about those besides himself and the young women until that moment. That had been when the men had truly begun to fall, and they’d found themselves with nowhere left to run and no one left to protect Nunnally and Tianzi.

Now, mere minutes later, the bodies in the hall before the garden burned, filling the air with the stench of broiling flesh, choking out the smells of chemicals and compounds. Something crashed inside the room he and the others had been trapped within. He hurried forward.

He thought he heard someone curse. The sound jolted down his spine. Then there was a hissing noise – a low voice – and then C.C. was visibly exiting the room, stopping him before he reached the doorway. She held up her hand as if to stop him from entering. He remembered how her touch had shown him impossible things, souls screaming and earths shattering and reforming anew. He instinctively stepped back. The movement made C.C.'s face slip from annoyed to amused. "You should leave."

"No." With the mask, his determination became more authoritative, and he had another moment of ephemeral respect for Lelouch's plot. "I'm staying."

C.C. looked behind her, into the room, then back toward him. "You can't go in."

He narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"

"To protect my ally," she said, tilting her head to the continued sounds coming from within the room. They were worse now than a moment ago. As if he'd interrupted something important. "I know you want to kill me. I don't care." She flipped her hair back. She looked almost bored, as if even this battle couldn’t entertain her for long. Always that haughty indifference, that separation of herself from the world. Was it that cruel disengagement that had corrupted Lelouch? "My ally and I have something to do before you start bleeding us."

Her ally. Her ally. Her ally. Just who was it that Lelouch had let live?

Someone, perhaps, that he had trusted? No. No, that much he wouldn’t believe. If there had been nothing else Lelouch had said that Suzaku had believed, it was that Lelouch had hated Geass. He'd killed children in order to wipe Geass from the earth. Suzaku had seen the evidence, when he'd shown his skepticism. Lelouch was always a man more of actions than words. Words spoken from those lips couldn't be trusted. But actions.

Actions he could trust.

Unless… unless it was another manipulation.

No. Lelouch had recognized what Geass had done to him. To the world. If only to protect his precious investment, he would have done everything he could to rid the world of Geass.

Which meant this ‘ally’ was someone C.C. had hidden from Lelouch, as well. And that meant that Lelouch would have killed the immortal if he'd been granted the opportunity. It was only right that Suzaku finish what Lelouch started. After all, he'd taken the position Lelouch had failed in. He’d been made Zero, a hero of justice, because Lelouch was not what Zero needed to be.

 _But he had been_ , a dark voice thought. He had been. More than anyone. Suzaku scowled. "I will kill your friend. And you. But D.D. will be the first."

His words actually made the woman smirk. "Did you do as I asked?"

He scowled. The crane had given him coordinates, but nothing else. "I have men gathering the supplies."

She sighed. "Well, he was expecting that sort of eventuality, I'm sure."

The exasperated huff reminded him once again of Lelouch. The man would be shaking his head at the two of them, telling them to hurry up. His brows would be furrowed. Suzaku could almost see it himself. He wished the gas was Lelouch's, that the reason Suzaku's limbs were beginning to freeze up was because Lelouch had planned for it. If it was Lelouch's plan, it would work. His plans always worked. Eventually.

Suzaku gasped. He gripped his head as something exploded within it. His knees shook, barely holding his weight. That false Lelouch turned to him, those eyes – those perfect purple eyes, the way Suzaku _wanted_ to remember them – hooded. “You need to go, Suzaku. Leave the building, for god’s sake, or else you’ll just be in the way.”

Suzaku… shook his head. He couldn’t control the action. Almost as if someone else was doing it. As if there was – there was another in there with him, another Suzaku. But it was him. “You aren’t a fighter,” that other Suzaku said.

Those amethyst eyes pierced him. “I need you with Nunnally.”

Suzaku glared from behind Zero’s mask. His chest was tight, so tight he could hardly breathe. The leaden ball in his gut was molten. He wouldn’t be pushed to the side, not now, when – the woman, the white-haired immortal, screamed. C.C. ran back into the room–

"Back away, idiot!"

Suzaku stumbled over his own feet, then over a corpse, and then over his cape. He fell gracelessly.

He stayed on the floor as some battle raged just beyond the hall he stood within. He could hardly see through the mask. He actually raised a hand as if to fix the thing. It was only after he touched the rounded surface that he realized he was crying. "What was that?" he asked. He could still see it. See _him_. Lelouch looking right at him like that – like Suzaku was something worth protecting. It had felt so true, so __right.__ For that one instant, the world had realigned. The loss of it felt worse than death. "What the hell was that?!"

He looked up, but C.C. was sliding further and further away from him, her gaze on her hands. The fire licked at her back and at the bodies below her feet. "Eternity," she said. Even with his vision blurred, he could see her hands tremble. "Eternity has been broken."

Beyond her, D.D. stumbled out of the room, one hand over her nose and mouth and the other out before her to catch herself on the hallway wall. She flickered in his eyesight before becoming fully visible. The immortal witch turned back to the room and opened her mouth, but whatever she was going to say was lost beneath a sudden rage of coughs. She turned, her eyes narrowing, and headed back toward the gardens and around the edge of the hall. Suzaku struggled to get his feet underneath him.

"Stay there!" C.C. shouted, holding out her hand once more, but this time as if to prevent Suzaku from hurting her. She backed up, her other hand pressed into the far wall. "You can't be near us. Something's wrong – our eternities have been damaged."

"What do you mean?"

C.C. shook her head. "I don't know. I don't understand it myself. But you have to get away. If you come near, reality will tear – it's as if a crack has already formed."

To Suzaku, it sounded like an excuse to make him leave. D.D. hunkered underneath the smoke as she stumbled away. Her hand, draped over her mouth, made Suzaku think about the mask he wore. He’d covered his face at first, but not recently. Yet, though he could smell something in the air, it hadn’t affected him as strongly. The filter in the mask was helping to keep the air he breathed clean.

C.C.’s knees buckled. She grimaced and wrinkled her nose. “Go, she said. Her voice scratched. “You’re in the way!”

D.D. turned to them at the shout. Her blue eyes caught on Suzaku. She swung drunkenly toward them.

“That’ll have to do,” C.C. said. She hurried past Suzaku. “Run, idiot!”

He followed her before he understood the impulse, whether it was the geass or the memory of that… that fake Lelouch nearly pleading with those eyes as he ordered Suzaku to go. It was only as he turned, cape flaring behind him, that he heard C.C. shout out, “we’re leaving!”

Her partner. Ally. The one she’d hidden from Lelouch. Suzaku turned to look behind him, but he’d run too fast. He’d already caught up to C.C. Her hair blocked his view.

“I don’t know which way to go,” C.C. said, her voice little more than a breath. She gasped and wheezed as they ran. A gunshot banged against the wall beside him. He jumped, but his geass didn’t activate, not once. He turned around again, this time able to see D.D. turning back the way they’d come. Dropping the chase. Suzaku stopped. “Knock it off!” C.C. said, and then his geass _did_ activate. Just in time for him to dodge her hand as she reached for him.

She pulled her hand back the instant he flinched away. She nearly snarled. Her fingers curled into fists. “We’re trying to take care of this problem right now. It’s no time for you to be getting in the way!”

_You’ll just be in the way._

“What do you mean, in the way?!” Even Lelouch had admitted that he couldn’t finish his final plan without Suzaku. When C.C. could have put on that outfit. When _anyone_ would have done, any person could have taken up the call, or even been _forced_ to take it up. When a simple geass would have sufficed, Lelouch had chosen Suzaku. _Only Suzaku_. _It has to be you_. Only Suzaku could be his knight. Only Suzaku could be his sword.

“Suzaku, I need you to go!”

Suzaku found himself backing away again, pain flaring like novae in his mind. An image of Lelouch flashed before his eyes. Those lips pulled back in a snarl. Lelouch shooed him off with one hand. “I need her to tail me. Now _move!_ You’re in the way!”

Suzaku jerked. The image of Lelouch seemed almost like a hologram, but that voice. That voice was real. Choked by smoke. Angry. Frustrated. Worried. Suzaku sucked in a chemical-hazed breath and ran.

This time, C.C. stayed behind.

* * *

Lelouch hadn’t had time to wait anymore. The idiot hadn’t left him any choice. Coming back, ignoring C.C. and even Lelouch’s gunshots as he stole a gun from yet another corpse. Speaking had been a calculated risk; Suzaku could just as easily have frozen as moved. He could have chosen to chase after Lelouch’s voice. But he’d banked on Suzaku’s soldier instincts and his refusal to accept outside-the-box ideas netting Lelouch the response he’d been looking for. And he’d been right. Suzaku had left, and Lelouch had chased D.D. through the smoke.

He barely reached the woman before she kicked him down. But that was fine. Her attention was on him. He adjusted his fall to account for the bodies burning beneath him; the fire was so strong he found his lungs constricting. Suzaku, that ridiculous fool, probably hadn't even had the mind to notice. The mask would filter the worst of it, just enough to let Suzaku forget about the smoke burning his vision. Lelouch wouldn’t be surprised to find the man hadn’t even noticed the black smoke turning the hall into a horror wall of shadows and darkness. Not with that superhuman physicality of his.

The smoke clung to the ceiling, dripping down to cover the bodies until they seemed to writhe within the haze. Clothes and skin peeled to ash by the rising blaze. The sprinkler system should have been altered, if C.C. had followed his instructions. It should be spurting only slightly, barely doing more than turning the smoke heavy. The fire would burn just fine with it. The rest of the building…

The smoke would take care of the worst of the smell from the gases he’d had C.C. lay out. The smoke, thick and black, would mask the lighter smoke closer to the entrance, at least long enough. It would have been better if they’d moved away from the garden; it was little more than a bomb waiting to go off now. They should have been well past the hall when they began this battle, but. Well. Suzaku was always good at ruining Lelouch’s plans.

Badly enough for Lelouch to speak. If Suzaku didn’t think it a trick of his mind, then the fact of his continued existence would be known. Suzaku had already made it plain what he thought about that. As D.D. had been so kind to remind him.

For now, there was the trouble of the white-haired witch. He had to run and hope the traps still remained. If it was too late, he really would hunt Suzaku down and strangle him.

First, to return the way they’d come. Suzaku was gone, but Lelouch couldn’t know through the crackling flames and burning smoke if he was gone _enough_. At least getting thrown to the ground had given C.C. and Suzaku a few more seconds to get some space between them. Even if it meant spending more time here. He would just have to face the consequences.

He rolled, pushed off a dead body, and took to his feet. D.D. raged behind him. It was the first time he’d heard anything other than that calm recitation of hers. She nearly grabbed him, nearly pulled him back, but she started hacking again, and he got away. Even those few seconds meant little. She quickly caught up. He’d barely gotten halfway down the hall before he heard her footsteps just behind him. She coughed even as she ran.

He wasn’t impervious to his own devices; he felt the smoke in his lungs, too thick to breathe through. But he knew the truth. He knew they weren’t getting farther away from the real threat, but closer. So he kept going. If he couldn’t breathe, then he would just run until his body lost all oxygen.

The smoke cleared enough to show C.C. She waited for him despite common sense. He grabbed the woman’s arm and dragged her with him when she continued to stand frozen like a fool in the middle of the hall. “Go,” he said, his voice weak and raspy from the smoke. “Now.”

She did. At least one person was capable of following orders when necessary.

The way back to the front of the building included several sitting rooms, many connected. Lelouch swung into one of them, hacking up a lung as he did. The air here was still a bit sweet, since the door had been closed. The knob, far enough away from the fire, had only been warm, and not scalding hot. He still had use of both hands.

He ran straight through to the next room, deliberately leaving the doors open. He heard a small thud as a body banged against one of the walls. D.D. slid inside the room with him, her hair gray with soot and ash. Her eyes were wild.

Good. She’d followed him.

“Fight on, brave knights!” she shouted as he turned to look at her. “Man dies, but glory lives! Fight on; death is better than defeat!”

Lelouch smirked. “Is it? That’s rather alarmingly stupid, isn’t it?” He bit his tongue to keep from coughing again. “Defeat is just a way to learn how to win. If you die, then everything becomes pointless.”

It seemed D.D. had finally cottoned on to the smell of toxins in the air. She tried to cover her mouth. “Trickery and treachery are the practices of fools who have not the wits enough to be honest!"

Lelouch laughed at that and spread his arms. "Well, then I am the King of Fools! Who has tricked more than I? Who has betrayed more than I? And who else has claimed the world his, and remade it for himself?" Lelouch lifted his chin and smirked again, deliberately mocking. "You think you can steal my crown? Then come show me what your honesty can do!"

D.D. ran toward him. Lelouch didn't try to dodge, even though he was even more wary of the woman's hands now than he'd been when they'd first faced one another. She grabbed for his throat, wrapped those tiny hands around it, and squeezed. "The devil is compromise," she said, and bore him to the ground.

Lelouch let her, let her dig her nails into his skin until he bled, and watched, breath stolen, as she gasped over him, those pale eyes watching his. Waiting.

It wouldn't do to fall fully unconscious and be dragged outside, where, without being able to control his abilities, he would be visible to all and sundry. Lelouch waited until his body was bucking beneath her, until his hands wrapped around her wrists of their own volition. His hands shook, weakness in the limbs struggling instinctively for air. It was with her helpfully preventing him from breathing too much poisonous air that he touched her throat with two trembling fingers. Her pulse pounded beneath her skin.

He took his gun and jammed it into her solar plexus with every last ounce of his strength.

She gasped. Her grip loosened. His body arced up into the air as he sucked in a breath. He hit her wrists with the gun until she let go entirely, until he could scrabble out from underneath her. He held his breath as he made for the door and got out into the opposite hall.

Smoke. It was everywhere, and when he finally gave in and sucked in another breath, he hacked into a coughing fit to rival a chain smoker. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his throat.

It had been too long. The fire was perfect for his plans, but he was never meant to stay near it for so long. Now his throat and lungs were compromised, even before he made it to this side of the building. Each breath he took now was one too many.

He stayed on the floor, where it was a bit easier to breathe. Even down here, on this side of the rooms, it was _hot_. Even so far away from the fire, the smoke was becoming too thick. His throat, already healing from D.D.’s touch, seemed to blister with every inhale. Worse, he knew very well that, even with D.D. kindly keeping him from breathing in too much, the poison had still entered his veins enough to slow him down. His vision was beginning to blur.

But it was almost done.

The smoke in front of him was fake. He knew that. D.D, however, with the real fire behind her, wouldn’t question it. Not in time.

He’d led her here. All he needed to do now was get out.

He crawled into the thick of the smoke until his hands hit the far wall. D.D. stumbled out of the room behind him, hacking and sputtering as she crashed into the wall by the door once, then again. The poison was thicker in her lungs than in his, all because she’d let her rush of battle get to her. Any control she had over her body would be compromised. Her vision would create shadows where there was only smoke, substance where there was only air. He heard her swing out and almost laughed.

One tense minute of waiting as she stumbled down the hall, and he pulled himself up.

His lungs heaved as he stuck his head into the thick of the smoke again. The heat had him sweating. He shivered and grappled with the wall until he found a window. Then it was a blind search for the locks, the smoke burning his eyes until tears leaked out.

Finally, he felt the release knob beneath his fingers. He grabbed it and yanked.

Fresh air whooshed into his face. He struggled to breathe it in; it was cold and strong, and his lungs didn’t have any room in them. Smoke billowed out in the next instant. He struggled to join it.

The window was small, thin. Slim enough for Nunnally or Tianzi to slip through without issue, but not enough for Suzaku. Lelouch stuck his head through, caring only, in that moment, about air. Once he had it, he coughed miserably, his entire body bent to the task of simply breathing, until he stuffed his shoulders through and squirmed madly, still gulping up each breath he could. The sides of the sill scraped at his skin, but the fire was fine, compared to the burning hollow in his throat. He was hacking up his lungs when he finally managed to inch his shoulders through, and he fell headfirst through the window, his hips getting scraped raw as his momentum pulled them straight through the sill. He nearly broke his neck falling the way he did.

He gave himself only one moment, just enough for his throat to open up enough for him to breathe without coughing all over again, and then he pulled himself to his feet. The world spun alarmingly before managing to right itself. He breathed gustily, as if he could expel the poison with an exhale. Smoke poured out all around him. He reached up and yanked the window down as well as possible. It lowered the amount of smoke, but more importantly, it masked his escape path long enough to ensure someone within wouldn’t find it so easily. Then he trailed a hand along the wall and hobbled slowly toward the front of the building.

By now, the bystanders would have been cleared out. With both Nunnally and Zero outside, no one would wish to enter the building. He could, if he strained his ears, hear water being poured onto the garden. If there was still a crowd, it would be around there.

He was unsurprised to find he’d been at least mostly correct. The front lawn had been cleared of all but fire, law, and medical personnel. The only exceptions were Nunnally, Zero, who guarded Nunnally predictably despite the poison he must have inhaled, and, the one major surprise – Kallen. Kallen was busy turning several other Black Knights away from the scene. Shinichiro seemed to be the one giving her the most trouble, demanding he stand by Zero, since he wasn't feeling well. Suzaku must have been affected enough to let Zero’s perfect demeanor slip. Lelouch would forgive him for it this once, since he’d been breathing in neurotoxins and smoke for several minutes.

All that was left now was to wait.

C.C. stood next to Nunnally, silent guard to her well-being, but when she caught sight of Lelouch, she left Nunnally's side to come to his. "Just what have you planned?"

Lelouch grinned and nodded toward the building. "Through every hall, I had you lace the air with a neurotoxin designed to paralyze the body. None of us will die from it, unlike humans," he said, trying not to think of Suzaku's endless stupidity, "but it will still keep us from moving. With her responses slowed, she wouldn't be able to fight me properly. It would take her time to take me down. Enough for me to lead her to a room and have her breathe in the poisons."

After, of course, infuriating her enough to make her try to take his life. She would want to do so in a way that didn’t destroy her chance to out him. Guns would be out; she didn’t have any knives. The best option for her would be strangulation. Then, as he lay unconscious, she could drag him outside, and he would be helpless to hide himself. It took so much effort as it was; he often fell into a quick, dreamless sleep after holding it for longer than a few hours.

"After she was poisoned,” he continued, “I could lead her on a trail through the smoke to the lobby. She won’t want to come out where others can see her, not in the state she’s in, unable to control her invisibility. She’ll head to the next closest exit – the emergency exit found within the meeting room."

C.C. only hummed. "So? Why lead her to the exit?"

Lelouch smiled. "Do you remember what I had you place in there?"

She shook her head.

"Attempting to get through the exit would lead to an explosion," he said, eyeing Zero as he leaned, just a bit, onto the side of an ambulance. Nunnally sat in the back, her eyes steely as she watched the Black Knights divvy up responsibilities. "She'll see this, even poisoned, and will try to turn around."

Another hum, this time betraying a hint of interest. "And then?"

Lelouch chuckled. "She'll drown."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The list:  
> Walter Scott  
> Benjamin Franklin  
> Henrik Ibsen


	9. Torn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's focus should be on D.D. It's not.

" _Only the forgotten are truly dead."_

__-Tess Gerritsen_ _

* * *

At first, she wouldn't even notice.

The smoke would be to blame. Her body would heat. She would cough. Her limbs would shake as if to flee – the natural response of prey when injured. She had smelled the sweetness in the air of that room, just as he’d known she eventually would. The immortal would cover her mouth and think _poison_. She would attribute the growing weakness of her body to just that.

After breathing in the fumes for so long, it would be of no surprise when, as she entered an adjoining room where the chemicals were so condensed, she would get blurry vision, her limbs would grow heavy, and she would have shortness of breath. All of it, of course, helpfully exacerbated by the smoke. The heat.

Then the running. At first thinking Lelouch was only a bit ahead, she would struggle forward, her heart rate accelerated, the smoke clogging her throat. Through it all, she would be too disoriented to notice the lack of heat in the smoke. It would hit her, near the lobby, that she hadn't seen Lelouch. That he must have escaped. She would know that he wouldn’t want to be seen, any more than she would.

If she didn’t already know about the secret exit in the meeting room, it wouldn’t be hard to parse it out. A place where Zero might likely be attacked, a place central to the building, allowing yet another avenue of escape. It was a room made to house an emergency escape, should the building be attacked. Common sense. She’d have likely thought about it before Lelouch had even arrived on the scene. She’d likely kicked up her assault the instant Zero didn’t head out the front door, simply to ensure he didn’t choose a more secret escape.

She would head there, not knowing. Not knowing. Until she found the trap laying there on the floor beneath the table. A chemical bomb waiting for her to set it off. She would know Lelouch couldn't have set it up while crawling through the smoke.

That would be when she would notice it.

It would be too late, of course. C.C. had gone through and placed everything to Lelouch's specifications long before. All that time, she would have been breathing it in. More than Suzaku, with his mask's filters. More than C.C, who Lelouch had ordered to leave. Even more than Lelouch, though he, too, would be in danger; a price he was willing to pay.

She would notice that the smoke wasn't really smoke, that, if anything, it was cool on her skin.

Cool… and wet.

With the poisons ruining her system, with the neurotoxins slowing her down, she would attempt to race to the lobby exit – to any exit – and her racing heart, beating even faster than before, would pump the poisons throughout her system.

She would fall. Paralyzed, she wouldn't be able to stand.

The water vapor she'd been breathing in for hours, spurred on by those darned malfunctioning sprinklers, would churn in her lungs more and more as she fought to move in an air filled equally with those paralyzing poisons. She wouldn't be able to escape.

An eternal drowning, right there in the meeting room. All because she tried to run too fast.

Lelouch waited. At the end of the hour, as firefighters tried to dowse the flames – adding only more water in a place that needed no help on that score – Kallen hurried Zero and Nunnally away. Shinichiro went, as well, declaring his intent to protect Zero to every corner of the country. Most Black Knights followed.

Only one remained. Chiba. Staring anxiously into the building, then back at the firefighters, then back into the building.

He sighed. "It seems someone has yet to come out."

C.C. looked at Chiba. The woman seemed to be steeling herself to run into the burning building. C.C. sighed with him. "Will this ruin the plan?"

Lelouch took a deep breath. He didn't cough. He’d healed some time ago. "No. She won't be moving for a while. But we'll need to…" He stopped talking abruptly and watched as, from the front door, Toudou emerged. He was covered in soot and coughing horribly, one man over his shoulder. Chiba raced to his side. A couple of firemen hurried over, as well, instructing Toudou to bend over, wrapping a blanket around him, pulling him and the unconscious soldier gently to the final awaiting ambulance. Lelouch could already hear more sirens wailing. Back-up ambulances for what few may have survived the battle and the fire.

Lelouch turned to C.C. "Warn them about the drowning," he said, and she cocked an eyebrow.

"Really?"

He smirked. "Can you not handle them?"

She looked to Toudou and Chiba, then smirked, as well. She shimmered into sight. "You!" she called.

As one, every person turned, knight and fireman alike. While the firemen came to stop her progress, perhaps noticing the soot on her, as well, Toudou stood straight. "You're here," he said, and began coughing all over again.

"Are you coughing because of smoke inhalation or drowning?" she asked, and tilted her head. Lelouch nearly applauded the calm curiosity in her voice.

"Drowning, probably," he answered. Both she and Lelouch stilled. "Sorry?" she said, and Chiba looked at him, then back at C.C. She started to draw her gun. Toudou put a hand in front of her, effectively stilling her movements. "Don't," he ordered, and Chiba's face contorted into a mess of wide eyes, pursed lips, and furrowed brows. "I stayed until the end," he said, speaking once more to C.C. "And saw."

Lelouch jerked back. Though the man was obviously finished speaking, his intent was clear. He'd seen something. Lelouch? No. Obviously not; he’d been invisible. But if the man had gone in, looked around – the notes. Lelouch hadn't been able to help it, not with D.D. attacking at just that moment, before he'd had time to leave his little gifts within the building. So Toudou had seen them, likely read them, and realized. Lelouch tensed.

"From the sound of it," Toudou said, "she seemed to enter the meeting room."

C.C. nodded. "Good."

Toudou seemed unsurprised by the announcement. He simply bowed his head. As he raised it once more, he looked around, staring at nothing in particular, his brow slightly furrowed. Frown lines gripped the edges of his lips.

Ah. Lelouch would have to speak with him.

"You should head to the hospital," C.C. said. "Get your lungs looked at." Toudou nodded and turned to the men tending him and his rescue. Chiba quickly took her place beside Toudou in the back of the ambulance. The doors closed behind her.

Lelouch watched as Toudou was taken away, then looked around. The firefighters remained, along with a few stragglers the police were even now scattering. They were as free to move as they were going to be. He turned to C.C. "I need you to go to the docks. I have no doubt Zero has failed to consider subtlety for this venture."

C.C. inclined her head. "We'll have to leave by boat. Zero will no doubt join us."

Lelouch grinned. "Don't worry. That's what Schneizel is for." He walked toward the entrance of the building as if he still owned it, though he kept himself carefully concealed.

She just huffed and left to follow his order.

* * *

It had always been Nunnally's habit to trust. She'd grown up in a household where she was safe – well, where she'd thought herself safe. Then after, of course; her brother had always been very protective of her, and had done everything for her. She had never thought to question it, to think on how willingly blind she'd been to that which happened around her. Her big brother would just take care of it.

She'd thought, when speaking with Schneizel and firing the FLEIJA while onboard the Damocles, that she'd taken on the burden she'd tossed off before. She'd become the monster her brother had, in order to do what he had failed to: bring peace. But she'd been naïve, as always, trusting Schneizel to keep to his promises of not hurting anyone, trusting those around her to fight while she sat prettily in an ivory tower, ordering the destruction of others. And all the time her brother had bled and killed on the battlefield, his eyes wide open. She'd followed in his shadow, in his footsteps, right up to the very end. And for what? To kneel, staring into despair, her brother's eyes drifting shut, his secrets bombarding her mind. While she'd thought only of her own happiness, of the peace she’d wanted, he had been thinking of her.

It was only as his fingers had grown cold in her grasp that she'd understood what sacrifice truly meant. What burdens truly were. He had thought the same way as she. Yet his actions hadn't been fed by revenge or by a desire to rectify another's mistakes. While she felt proud of him, she also felt she'd failed something inside herself. Not because she hadn't taken up the charge, because she had. Not because she hadn't loved enough to become a monster, because she had. But because she'd lost her faith in the person she should have known better than anyone else.

The burdens he'd taken on had been hers from the start. When she'd lost her eyesight and her ability to move, Lelouch had been her eyes and her legs. He’d been the one to carry her, over and over, literally dragging them up the steps to the Kururugi Shrine when they’d been foisted off to Japan. Even before that, when she'd been unconscious and struggling to live, back when the attack had first happened, Lelouch had gone to their father and spoken for her.

Knowing all of that, she had still laid her desires at his feet, even though she’d been cognizant of his tendency to do anything for those he loved. Yet she'd dared been surprised to find what he would become in order to build such a world for her?

It had all been so confusing in her mind when she had first tried to find how she should feel, how she should have felt. She'd studied it, over and over again, from the very start: when things had changed from being familial and safe to being something far different. She'd always thought she should have seen it somehow. The switch from being her brother to being Zero. But there had never been a change. Lelouch had always been Lelouch: the brother who loved her; the friend whose loyalty never wavered; the man who acted cruel and distant, yet always loved far, far too much.

It wasn't necessarily that she'd failed her brother. Her every action had been for peace, for happiness, and she believed he understood that. Her brother had always understood her.

No, it wasn't that she'd failed him, per se. It was that she'd lacked the fundamental trust in those she loved, and the trust in herself to recognize that the love she gave, she gave to those who deserved it. In the end, she’d failed herself.

So of course she still loved Suzaku. He was her second older brother, the one with all the openness that her other brother lacked. While Lelouch was all head, Suzaku was all heart. Except when it came to love – then Lelouch took all the heart, and Suzaku took all the head. It had always meant butting heads when they'd been younger, she thought, smiling as the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Suzaku – Zero – and Kallen both by her side. She couldn’t imagine that ever changing.

Beyond Suzaku, however, there were still others whom she could trust. Kallen, a woman her brother had given his trust to, a woman who had been Nunnally's friend before Kallen had chosen to show them all who she truly was. Kallen, who even now was checking around the ambulance, not letting either her or Zero leave before she cleared the area. And Rivalz, though he'd gone on a motorcycle trip around Japan. And Milly, a bigshot reporter already.

And C.C.

It wasn't just because the woman was trusted by her brother, though of course she recognized the bias within herself to trust those her brother trusted. She'd also gotten along well with C.C. before she'd known who she was. She'd wanted to, of course, since she'd thought C.C. was her brother's girlfriend, but the truth was that she'd never had to put in any effort. C.C. was like another sister, like a more jaded Euphemia.

Suzaku led her forward, once again taking his spot as the unspeaking symbol behind her. The hospital was in a sort of controlled chaos; Several ambulances had arrived before theirs, including the one carrying both Empress Tianzi and Xingke. The hospital had sacrificed nearly an entire wing to them, allowing them privacy and safety. Black Knights, when they reached the wing in question, stood as sentinels at every hallway. Suzaku nodded to them as he pushed her past. Kallen stopped by one to speak with them before hurrying to return to Nunnally’s side. Nunnally smiled up at her. “I’m all right,” she said. “You needn’t remain here. You should get checked out yourself, then return.”

Kallen had refused. “Zero first,” she said, her lips in a firm line.

“I won’t be getting checked.” Both women frowned at Zero at the news. Zero remained impassive. Nunnally cleared her throat a moment later, realizing Suzaku’s concern. No one here knew who he was, nor could they be trusted with the knowledge. Still.

“We can still have someone take your blood pressure or something,” she said, lips firm. Brooking no argument. She thought she heard him sigh, but he didn’t try to fight her. A moment later, Kallen was covering a laugh. For the first time in a long while, things felt almost homey.

Of course, the hospital atmosphere banked that feeling a bit. Nurses nearly stumbled out of their way, rushing back and forth down the hall. Countless lay injured in these very rooms. Several more had died. And for what? She still didn’t know why. Why had they been targeted? What had the immortal wanted? Why had they been chased down so arduously? If it hadn’t been for C.C…

Suzaku wheeled her into an empty room, and Kallen closed the door behind them. Nunnally heard two Knights take their positions beside the door to guard her. Suzaku helped her into the hospital bed, then stood sentinel by her side.

C.C. She'd chosen to like the woman before she'd ever learned of Geass or hidden identities. She’d chosen to trust in her choice in loved ones, and in Lelouch’s, after her mistake. And so she’d chosen to trust the odd immortal. She'd told Suzaku to stay clear of the garden, following the order C.C. had given her in the middle of that battlefield. She believed C.C. would help her brother get rid of the threat of the other immortal.

But given her brother’s penchant for secrecy, could she ever expect an explanation for what had occurred? Or would he simply vanish again the moment the new immortal was taken care of?

The doctor came and went, giving her a clean bill of health. Zero was the one to inform the doctor that, though he was sorry for taking up the space, he would need to keep Nunnally in the room to ensure she was safe. The doctor agreed, and slowly, Zero began to relax, his shoulders losing their stiffness, his head no longer tilting toward the slightest of sounds outside Nunnally’s private room. Kallen, too, finally sat at the edge of Nunnally’s bed and turned to speak with her, smiling slightly.

The door creaked open. No one had knocked.

No one stepped inside.

Zero and Kallen both stood in front of Nunnally and pulled out their guns.

A moment came and went, and the privacy blinds on the window facing the hall were pulled. Another moment, and C.C. revealed herself, hands up. Nunnally quickly tapped Suzaku’s back. “Put your weapons away, please, the both of you.” She smiled up at C.C. The shock of that green hair hit her all over again. She’d once imagined black. "C.C. It's good to see you again."

The woman inclined her head and stared down the guns of Zero and Zero's Knight, neither of whom had seen fit to follow Nunnally’s order. Suzaku barely gave Nunnally room to see. "You're well?"

Nunnally nodded. "I am. I wasn't harmed. Zero protected me."

C.C. nodded, as well, and Nunnally thought she might have smirked for a second. Then she turned her gaze to Zero. "We need to speak."

"I have nothing to say to you," Zero said. His finger was steady on the trigger of his gun. His body remained levered slightly in front of Nunnally. C.C. looked bored with the threat.

Kallen looked back and forth between the two. Nunnally watched her. She hadn't known Kallen's facial features before the end of the war. She'd always thought the woman to be a brunette, perhaps with glasses; she'd always been quiet, shy, and very kind. But while Nina had ended up looking how she'd expected, Kallen hadn't. So when she'd seen Kallen, she'd actually been surprised to hear the woman's voice come from those lips.

Thanks to that, she hadn't yet learned the woman's face, the way it moved, the things she focused on. But expressions were universal, and Nunnally was practiced in listening for the nuances of them in a person’s voice. So she caught the very instant Kallen went to bite her lip before stopping herself. And she saw the next instant, where Kallen aborted a movement to walk toward the green-haired immortal, nearly breaking her protective stance in front of Nunnally.

Kallen's loyalties were torn.

But to C.C? That didn't seem right.

"I'm not interested in dealing with your tantrums today, Zero," C.C. said, flipping her hair back. She seemed completely uninterested in the threat to her life. And why should she be? She wouldn't die. She'd probably been shot before. "We need to speak about what's been happening."

Zero tensed. Suzaku wasn't the stone her brother had been; he couldn't hide his physical reactions. Not like Lelouch, who had grown up in Charles' world of kill or be killed. Zero lowered his gun just a bit. Just enough to change the trajectory from a killing shot to a crippling one. "Who is your partner?"

C.C. sighed. "That is not what I'm here to talk about."

"It's what I'm going to talk about," Suzaku said.

They both glared at each other.

Nunnally’s shoulders stiffened. They were in a hospital. A shootout would be a horrible end to the publicity they'd suffered. They needed to look strong, undefeatable. Justice, peace, could not seem so fragile. "Zero," she said, breaking up the tension spinning out of control. "We can't fight here."

Zero turned to her, then back to C.C. It was obvious to Nunnally, who knew Suzaku's silences so well, that he was struggling within himself. To Suzaku, C.C. was nothing but evil. He wanted to blame someone else for what her brother had become. For the changes they’d both thought they’d seen in him. Now, she didn’t think he’d changed all that much. Not really. But even if he had, the desire to blame another was useless. After all, her brother never did anything he didn't want to do.

Countless seconds passed, but finally Zero pulled himself back and lowered his weapon. Kallen, releasing a sigh almost of relief, did the same. "Your existence here is barely tolerated, immortal." His voice was more like the Zero her brother had created, and Nunnally silently applauded it. C.C. tilted her head in acknowledgment. "You will answer my questions."

At that, C.C. smiled. "Your questions are the wrong ones." As Suzaku bristled, she continued. "There are larger issues, and I have places to be." She looked at Kallen and Nunnally, then turned back to Suzaku. "The things I have to say are for you. Shall we go?"

Suzaku was obviously not pleased with the proposition. One quick glance to Kallen showed she wasn't happy with it, either. But he returned his gun to its holster and stood straight, inclining his head slightly for her to take the lead. C.C. snorted and turned invisible. “Oh, no. After you,” Nunnally heard. She imagined hearing the sound of Suzaku grinding his teeth.

Nunnally watched them leave. The small hospital room made the sound of the closing door echo like a slam. She turned to Kallen. The woman was looking at the door as if she wanted to follow them out. Nunnally cleared her throat, and Kallen jumped. She turned wide eyes to her. "Go," she said. Kallen jumped again. "Go." She gestured to the door. "You want to, don't you?"

Kallen looked imploringly at the door, but she didn't move. "No," she said, and gritted her teeth. Nunnally frowned. "No," she said again. "I choose to stand by Zero. I trust him." The words seemed to almost hurt her. She looked at Nunnally, then moved into a new position, one that would have her ready to attack anyone who entered the room. "I know your importance to him. And to the world." She gave her a smile. "I won't abandon my post again."

__Oh._ _

Oh. If only her brother could see this. Tears welled in her eyes. If only he knew the loyalty and love he'd inspired in those around him. "Thank you," she said.

She didn't know if Kallen got the full message, the knowledge of just what she was thanking Kallen for, but it didn't matter. The fact that it was sent was enough.

* * *

It had all reeked of __him__ , right from the start.

Xingke leaned over Tianzi's bed as she slept. The surgery to remove the bullet had gone without incident, with the doctor telling him to expect her to wake in the next few hours. He rested his sword within easy reach beside him and stared down at her young face. She'd taken the wound bravely, and though she'd been hurt, she'd still trusted Zero enough to follow him down the corridor until Xingke could reach her.

If she knew that Zero was undoubtedly working on Emperor Lelouch's orders, would she still be willing to trust him?

He glared out of the room. Of course Tianzi had been given her own private room in the hospital, but the walls and door were made of glass. It may have made it easier for doctors to see if there was any need to check on the patient, but it made Xingke's job harder. Of course, privacy blinds were available. He just needed to choose which was more important – protecting Tianzi or ensuring she received proper care. His hands gripped tightly around his knees. For now, the glass remained bare.

He’d waited a long, long time before accepting that Zero would be late arriving, for whatever reason. He had plenty of hypotheses as to his tardiness, but he would wait to be certain. Needless to say, the man was not innocent.

Before, he'd only had the suspicion that Zero was one of Emperor Lelouch's men. Not only because the plan had been so brilliantly concocted, but also because of the way Zero had moved there at the end. Not only had Zero been resurrected, but the man wearing the suit had clearly been a warrior of high caliber. The shots fired at him had been real, and he had dodged every one, almost as if he'd known where they would land. He'd been fluid, almost graceful. Unlike Lelouch’s Zero.

Xingke had worried, right from the start. The peace that had followed had been a direct result of the imposter's actions, and the peace that had been achieved had been carried by whoever had filled Lelouch vi Britannia’s shoes. What was his angle? What was the point of the charade? What had Emperor Lelouch's plan been?

But today, seeing Zero move, being able to stand back and watch – he __knew__ those moves. He'd fought against them. The man thought to be dead – whose tombstone read his last day – was wearing the false skin of justice.

Why? What had he to gain? He had kept himself secret all this time. He stood to gain nothing if such continued.

Of course, there could be something far more sinister at work.

A horrible thought trapped itself in Xingke's mind: what if the emperor wasn't dead? If Kururugi Suzaku was simply forcing the world on a path of the emperor’s choosing, that would be suspicious enough. But if the emperor was still alive? If Kururugi was only lying in wait, ready to stand by Lelouch vi Britannia’s side the moment the man chose his moment to return?

The idea seemed wild. Yet, whatever had happened in the UFN just a few hours ago, the green-haired woman hadn't been the one to plan it out. From what he recalled, her only skills were eating pizza and acting condescending. Moreover, of what he remembered of Kururugi's tactics, the man couldn't possibly have been involved. Schneizel, who could have been ordered to make a plan, had disappeared, off on some other mad venture – presumably.

That only left the emperor.

If Kururugi had been the one to put the blade through the emperor, then had he somehow found a way to avoid the man's death? Xingke himself hadn't been able to see the body, so he couldn't verify. He'd been released, along with Tianzi, and his first and only concern had been her welfare. Afterward, he'd only been able to see the false Zero take his place beside the rescued Lady Nunnally as the crowds stormed the streets. He’d been certain – was still certain – that others had checked the man's pulse. Too many people had been hurt by the emperor to dare his rising from the grave.

And yet it was the only explanation that made sense.

He saw movement from outside the room. Finally, Zero had arrived. Except his head was tilted, his stance curved slightly to the side. Talking. To no one. His gut clenched at the sight. To think that he'd allowed such a man near Tianzi…

He stood. As much as he wanted to watch over her as she slept and ensure she was kept safe, he had to follow. There was too much he needed to learn.

* * *

"Let's keep our voices down, shall we?" C.C. asked as she led him up to the hospital roof. The __roof__. How dare she take the spot he and Lelouch had always taken before. "Attention can be easily called to us in such a public space."

"Then why come to me here?"

She gave him a short look over her shoulder, as if she couldn't understand how he could possibly be so stupid. "Because here is where you were."

He had to listen to enough weird crap from the immortal attacking him. He didn't have the patience to get it from this witch, too. "Then explain what you want and go away. I don't have time for this."

"You'd better make time," she said. "You're the one causing these problems."

He snarled as they reached the edge of the roof. He grabbed the railing, the feel of it buried beneath the touch of gloves over his skin. "I'm the one causing problems? You're the one who hid this woman's existence from Lelouch. You kept him from killing her, and now we're all dealing with the consequences."

She had the grace to grimace at that, but the look quickly disappeared. "You are the one who broke Eternity. I don't know how. I don't understand it myself. You are able to see me when I'm invisible. It's something no one else has ever managed to do." She frowned. "It may be because I showed you a glimpse of Eternity. But that was only once, and I’d done it plenty of times before. The second time was entirely you. I didn’t do anything. You were able to __call__ it to you. I've never seen anything like it before."

He had no idea what she was talking about. "Get to the point."

She glared at him. "The point," she said, "is that you are an unsafe anomaly. I know you'll want to come with us when we take care of D.D.–"

"You're damn right I do."

She gusted out a sigh. "Whenever you and I get close, Eternity fractures. Do you understand what that means?"

He kept his silence, because no, he had no idea what it meant.

Her furrowed brows slowly evened out, and that frown pulled into that damnable smirk. "You don't, do you?" She laughed. The bitch actually laughed. His fingers itched to grab his gun. "Oh, I suppose I can tell you. It means reality itself is cracking apart."

Suzaku frowned. It sounded like a load of gibberish. He gripped the railing tight.

C.C. turned back and forth where she stood, as if trying to find the correct direction to go. "Normally, I might relate it to what we did in the World of C." The memories of that time were painful in his own mind. He heard the metal railing creak under his palm and forced himself to let it go. "But you called out to Eternity before then, oddly enough. Back when you were guarding Euphemia. And it’s only happening around you. Both back then and now. I can still move around anywhere else without a problem."

Suzaku's fists clenched by his side. Was that what had happened? Was that why he hadn’t been there to save her? "So what are you saying? I'm tearing reality apart?" The very idea of it was absurd. Wasn't it?

"I don't know. All I know is that being near you is destroying Eternity. Like... like there should only be one tapestry. A bunch of threads, a bunch of potential futures, but all of them wrapped neatly into one picture. We could flit from string to string without destroying the picture that was the world." She waved her hand slightly, and for the first time in his life, he saw her start to pace. "But now… it's not like there are two pictures, but rather that we've, I don't know, created a new strand? Jumped off the picture altogether? It’s like two strands are trying to fill the same line of thread in the tapestry."

He didn't want to point out that he was lost again.

She made a frustrated noise. "It's like there are certain possibilities, certain futures, and we chose one that shouldn't have been possible to choose. Something about you." She glared at him. "Something about you, the decisions you've made, or the decisions people affected by you have made. They weren't even decisions that __could__ have been made. As if something literally impossible happened, anyway."

What was she talking about? "So something impossible happened, and it's breaking everything apart."

She nodded, that smirk flitting back onto her features. For the moment, her pacing calmed. "Yes, exactly. I'm very proud of you for following that." Oh, let him shoot her. She put a finger to her lips. "The issue here is that attempting to transport D.D. to her destination would require fairly close proximity. And we can't afford that."

"I'm not letting you take her wherever you want."

Her grin slid away. "We agreed long ago that I was his shield and you his sword."

Suzaku lifted his head at the tone. "And?"

" _So,_ I will shield his reality. It's your job to cut out any and all weaknesses. Any and all enemies."

He glared out from behind the mask. "And?" he asked, throat nearly closed in anger.

"His reality is under attack, __Zero__. By you. Perhaps you should focus on doing your job."

He snarled. This time he did whip out his revolver. "It's not my __job__ , witch. I chose to protect this world. That's all."

Her gaze didn't so much as flinch. She didn't even look down at his gun. Those golden eyes dove into his own, even from behind the mask, as if she could penetrate her way into his heart.

Then she snorted, nearly ladylike, and moved away. "Is that so?"

He kept his gun focused on her. Since they’d left Nunnally’s room, the witch had possessed a shimmering quality. She’d said he could see her when no one else could. That meant the odd quality meant she was invisible at the moment. Invisible to everyone but him. Whatever was going on, it was clearly _something_. Something to do with her, and immortality, and Geass.

His hand shook as she walked calmly to the door to the roof and left. Whatever else he felt about her, he knew what she was saying was true.

There was something horribly wrong.

* * *

Xingke watched as Zero turned, his gun still pointed out, toward the roof entrance. After only a moment, the door opened and shut on its own. Zero had to know she was gone; from how they’d spoken, Zero had been able to see her perfectly well. And unsurprisingly, he had decided to not shoot.

Unsurprisingly, Xingke had been right.

He'd gotten close enough, there at the end, following the lines of emergency generators and water containers and electric boxes lined up on the hospital’s roof, to hear the end of their conversation. No amount of invisibility could hide the soundwaves generated by a person’s voice. Zero had been called Emperor Lelouch's sword.

Fury flamed in his chest, even as he once again bit back the need to cough. He couldn't afford such weaknesses. Not now. Not with such a revelation at stake.

How many more were in on it? Was this why Toudou had accepted Zero's return so gracefully? Was this why Lady Nunnally had sided with Zero? Just how many people were continuing the legacy of that man?

If it was even a _legacy_ at all.

He touched the hilt of his sword as Zero finally lowered his weapon and looked around. It would be simple enough to take care of the man. He was alone, for once, and Xingke could only assume the man would have hidden knowledge of this liaison from others. So few, if any, were aware of where Zero had gone. If Xingke was to strike, now would be the time.

But if he struck too soon? If the rest scattered, or his attack forced any accomplices to act faster, before he had time to discover their motives and allegiances?

No. He would have to let this man live, at least for now. He would have to keep an eye on him.

Zero made his way to the door, his stance as regal as usual, tension in his shoulders the only sign that something had happened. Xingke narrowed his eyes.

Yes. He would have to keep a very close eye on him. On __all__ of them. Until they led him to their ringleader.


End file.
